Mr. Speaker, Employment and Social Development Canada, ESDC, has not conducted specific analyses on the impact of changing prices of basic necessities like food, shelter, clothing or transportation on recipients of specific benefit programs like the old age security and guaranteed income supplement, OAS and GIS, the Canada child benefit, CCB, and the Canada workers benefit, CWB. Moreover, ESDC has not developed projections of the impact of changing prices on the population that lives below the low-income cut-offs, LICO, below the official poverty line based on the market basket measure, MBM, or on low income according to the low income measure, LIM.
To account for inflation, government benefits that target the most vulnerable, including OAS and GIS, the CCB, the CWB and the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax, GST/HST, credit are indexed to inflation annually to keep up with increases to the cost of living.
In particular, the Old Age Security Act and the Canada pension plan each contain a guarantee ensuring that benefits can never be reduced, even in the event of a decline in the consumer price index, CPI. OAS benefits, including the GIS, are adjusted four times per year, in January, April, July and October, while Canada pension plan, CPP, benefits are adjusted annually in January. These benefits will continue to be adjusted in accordance with changes in the cost of living.