Madam Chair, as we well know, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has also evaluated that a modest pandemic profits tax would bring in about $8 billion. This is the kind of thing we did in the Second World War when we were all in this together.
We know that this would make a difference. The minister has refused to answer my question about the CRB being slashed. There are two other measures from the NDP that the government can support. First, in the budget the government has acknowledged the chronic and desperate poverty that so many Canadian seniors live under and has proposed to raise the OAS by 10%, but only for Canadians over the age of 75. Canadians from 65 to 75, who are the bulk of Canadian seniors, do not have access to that. Canadian seniors organizations have reacted. They are asking the government to change that situation, and the NDP again has proposed an amendment that would ensure that the OAS increase goes to all Canadian seniors. The government has also refused to extend the moratorium on student debt payments.
The question is very simple. The government is refusing to make sure that a pandemic profits tax, a wealth tax, is in place so that we have the wherewithal to make these important adjustments.
Will the government support ensuring that all seniors have access to the OAS increase, and will it put in place a moratorium on student debt payments?