Madam Speaker, I would like to thank you for allowing me to take part in this important debate on the people who built our society: our seniors.
Before I start, I would like to point out that the lands on which we are gathered are part of the unceded traditional territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin people.
I am very pleased to be able to address the House as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors to discuss the measures we presented for seniors in the 2021 budget.
The budget contains major support measures for Canadians, as well as measures to fight COVID-19 and measures previously announced in the throne speech and the 2020 fall economic statement.
To win the fight against COVID-19, governments across the country must tackle it on several fronts. That is why our government invested in health care and provided direct support for the provinces and territories in their fight against the virus. As our Prime Minister said, it was and continues to be a team effort in collaboration with the provinces and territories.
Our Liberal government implemented sound economic programs to help individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes survive the pandemic, as well as essential measures to protect Canadians' health and Canada's economy. With the 2021 budget, we are continuing to work toward giving people priority, protecting our economy and ensuring equality and fairness for all Canadians, including seniors. We are doing this in a number of ways.
As I said before, since the beginning of our mandate, we have been there for seniors, and we still are. The 2021 budget paves the way for our key priorities for seniors.
As Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors, I would like to explain to the House what this new federal budget means for seniors. Our government is keeping its promise to increase old age security benefits for Canadians aged 75 and over. These seniors will get a one-time payment of $500 in August 2021, and we will be increasing the old age security pension by 10% for these same seniors starting in July 2022.
Let us not forget that the increase to the guaranteed income supplement will give each senior $766 over the first year. That will give 3.3 million seniors more financial security and lift more than 60,700 seniors out of poverty, 65% of them women. This is the first permanent increase to old age security since 1973, other than adjustments due to inflation.
Our oldest seniors face increased care expenses and greater risk of running out of savings. As seniors age, their health care and home care costs go up just as they are most likely to be unable to work, have disabilities or be widowed.
The OAS increase will help ease the pressure seniors face and improve their quality of life. This measure reflects Canada's shifting demographics and targets those who most need support.
Seniors will make up 25% of Canada's population by 2037, compared to 8% in 1971. They are living longer now, and Canadians' life expectancy has risen by seven years, from 75 in 1980 to 82 in 2019. It now takes 100 workers under the age of 64 to support 26 retired seniors, compared to just 13 in 1970. That is why we are offering seniors more support, as promised in our platform.
Budget 2021 is doing much more for seniors. We will give the provinces and territories $3 billion to support the implementation of new standards for long-term care.
To help seniors stay in their homes for longer, we are launching a new initiative, the aging in place challenge program, to help seniors get access to local services such as meal preparation, housekeeping, errands, lawn care and so on.
We will build, repair and support an additional 35,000 affordable housing units for vulnerable Canadians, including seniors. We will help more families and people with disabilities by making it easier to access the disability tax credit and existing support measures.
We will also extend support measures for caregivers who cannot work during the pandemic because they have to care for COVID-19 patients and others.
We are also going to expand and enhance support for veterans, in particular by addressing issues with homelessness, employment, training and health.
Overall, budget 2021 includes major investments that will improve our seniors' quality of life. The pandemic has been hard on everyone, especially on seniors, and the government has not let them down. On the contrary, we took measures to support them on every front. We helped them deal with additional costs during the pandemic. We made one-time tax-free payments of more than $1,500 to low-income seniors. That is something. In fact, $1,500 provided seniors with considerable help during the pandemic.
In 2020 and 2021, we will spend more than $5.5 billion in direct financial support to seniors, which is $1.6 billion more than we promised in our platform.
Regardless of the pension benefits they were already receiving, seniors who lost their job because of COVID-19 were eligible for $2,000 a month under the Canada emergency response benefit and later under the Canada recovery benefit.
More than 450,000 seniors received this assistance. At the community level, we invested half a billion dollars to help seniors and other Canadians obtain essential supplies and services such as grocery delivery.
As part of the new horizons for seniors program, we launched more than 5,000 community projects to help seniors. Every one of us benefited in our ridings, and that was for our seniors.
Our vaccine supply is accelerating. More than 80% of Canadians aged 80 and over and 19% of all Canadians have received at least one dose. We are still on track to get 50 million doses by the end of June.
It is essential that we provide more help for older seniors, and that is what we are going to do through measures like the ones announced in budget 2021. Together, the federal government's measures are making a difference in seniors' lives. Canada's seniors will always be able to count on the federal government to listen to them, understand them and defend them.