Madam Chair, COVID-19 has highlighted many of the concerns facing our elderly population, and our government is committed to enhancing our current long-term care system and establishing national standards that meet and exceed the needs. That is why we have allocated $3 billion to support provinces and territories in ensuring that they are meeting long-term care standards and that the necessary changes are being made.
To continue to support seniors during COVID, we propose an increase in old age security for seniors aged 75 and up and will provide a one-time payment of $500 to these seniors to help them pay their bills. We also understand the importance of living at home for many of our seniors and propose an investment of $90 million towards the launch of our “age well at home” initiative to provide seniors with the support needed to ensure that they can live in the comfort of their own homes for as long as possible.
I will conclude by saying that we have also proposed an investment of $41.3 million to improve our data infrastructure and collection on supportive care, primary care and pharmaceuticals so that we can gather the data needed to continue to monitor the challenges and support future investments. We know that seniors are among the most—