Madam Speaker, in addition to the two-tier OAS proposal, there is yet another example in this budget of the government's discrimination against groups of seniors, and that is single seniors.
The government has chosen not to address the tax unfairness introduced by the Harper government. Single seniors are without an equivalent to income splitting whereby married or common-law partners may transfer pension income to the lower earner and thus pay less tax.
What does that mean? By not introducing measures for those without a partner, the Liberal government would allow a single senior to pay substantially more taxes than a senior in a couple with the exact same income.
By the same token, singles will continually be blatantly disadvantaged on any tax credits and benefits that are calculated using a taxpayer's net income, such as the age amount on the old age security benefits. This is totally unfair.
Governments need to put an end to this tiered seniors approach and stop discriminating against single seniors.