Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Trois-Rivières for her question, because it is particularly relevant. It is something we are currently facing.
Many seniors are alone and live on a single income. Most of them are women. The vast majority of these women did not have steady jobs or jobs with supplementary pension plans when they were younger. That means that they do not have a supplemental source of income from a pension plan to which they would have contributed through their employer.
More men had the opportunity to do so. Of course, this is because of sexism in the workplace and in the assignment of tasks in the past. It still exists, but it was perhaps more marked at the time. Unfortunately, all too often, a woman's only income comes from existing programs. If they do not have a supplementary pension plan, they also probably did not contribute to the Quebec pension plan consistently over a number of years. They have only their old age security, or maybe the guaranteed income supplement.
Poverty among seniors exists but, for social and historical reasons, it affects women more than men. That is why we must fight for pension plans everywhere, in every business, in every company, so that tomorrow, or the day after that, women do not find themselves in the same situation.