Mr. Speaker, it is very important to speak to a topic of great importance for Canadians from coast to coast to coast and the many seniors who I have the privilege of representing in the riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge.
I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for the great riding Waterloo.
Before I begin talking about some policy measures and so forth, I would like to give a big shout-out to the seniors in my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge and the city of Vaughan. Many of them come from the Italian-Canadian community. They immigrated to Canada in the 1950s and 1960s. They came here and worked extremely hard. They sacrificed for their kids so they could have a brighter and better future.
I see many of these seniors at picnics in the summertime and when I am out in the community. They are our labourers, carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, road builders and construction workers. The Italian-Canadian community has contributed to building our country to be the greatest one in the world, in my humble view. I owe them a debt of gratitude and I thank them. I get to interact with them, share a few laughs with them and, most important, I get to listen to them.
My parents, Rocco, who is in his late eighties, and Vincenza, who is in her early eighties, are doing very well. They worked very hard to contribute to building our country. They also worked very hard so their three boys could have a bright future, which all three of us do. Canada chose us. It selected us to come to this country, and I always keep that in the back of my mind.
When it comes to seniors, all seniors are owed a secure and dignified retirement. I think about the measures we put in place as a government to help seniors, such as the Canadian dental care plan. We reversed the Conservative policy and restored the age of eligibility for old age security and guaranteed income supplement back to 65 from 67. We increased the old age security by 10%, or $800 a year annually, for over three million seniors aged 75 and over.
We enhanced the Canada pension plan to increase the CPP maximum payment by 50%, or to over $1,800 a month, for future retirees, coming together with all the provinces in our initial term. We increased the guaranteed income supplement for single seniors, our most vulnerable seniors, the majority of which are women, up to $1,000 annually, which is benefiting a million seniors and lifting tens of thousands out of poverty.
We increased the GIS earnings exemption from $3,500 to $5,000 and a partial exemption of 50% for earnings between $5,000 to $10,000. Again, this is another measure that direct helps Canadian seniors across our beautiful country, ensuring that all seniors live in a dignified and secure retirement.
On the Canadian dental care plan, I am so happy that over 70,000 individuals in my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge, over 20,000 in the city of Vaughan, have now received coverage under this plan. Those numbers represent primarily seniors. If there is one measure that I know is transformational for seniors, it is the Canadian dental care plan. Many Canadians no longer have dental coverage when they retire. This fills the gap. We need to be proud of this measure and support it.
We, as a government, made a promise to restore the age of eligibility to 65 from 67 for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement. We kept that promise and we delivered for Canadian seniors. If that measure had been kept in place by the opposite party, seniors would have lost over $17,000, in today's dollars, in old security income for those two years. That was a wrong measure to do at the time. We fixed it. We will always have the backs of Canadian seniors.
Increasing old age security by 10% for seniors aged 75-plus benefited over 3.3 million seniors and represents $800 annually. This was not a small fiscal measure. It is $3 billion annually that comes out of the fiscal purse to support our seniors. It was the right thing to do because, as we know, when our seniors age, the cost pressures on seniors increase, their retirement savings tend to diminish a little bit, their partner may pass away and so forth.
In enhancing the Canada pension plan, the former finance minister came together with the provinces because we needed to get the provinces' agreement to sign off on changing the Canada pension plan. The Liberals did it; we delivered. Now, future retirees will go from one-quarter coverage of their earnings to a maximum pay of 15%, but it is really one-third of their earnings that will be covered under future retirement.
The other measure we promised and we delivered on was increasing the guaranteed income supplement by 10%, or nearly $1,000, for individual seniors. This assisted one million of the most vulnerable single seniors, lifting tens of thousands of seniors out of poverty.
We have accomplished much for Canadians, but there is always more work to be done. The Canadian dental care plan is another step in that direction, and so is the GIS earnings exemption. We know that many seniors wish to stay in the labour market. We want those seniors to flourish and to work. We increased the exemption amount on their earnings from $3,500 to $5,000 and the partial exemption of 50% of earnings between $5,000 and $10,000. These are concrete measures that we know help seniors. All these measures combined have strengthened Canada's retirement system, which we know depends on: pillar 1, the Canada pension plan that we all work towards and contribute to both as an employer and employee; pillar 2, the old age security and the guaranteed income supplement, which we know benefits millions of seniors; pillar 3, which tend to be RRSPs and TFSAs that seniors can contribute to; and pillar 4, private pension plans, which many Canadians receive, including my parents, who both worked for private sector unions, and that help Canadians.
That is our retirement system, but there is always more work to do. I always welcome new ideas. We have done a lot, but we also know seniors across Canada have been impacted by global inflation. It impacted all countries around the world. We know a lot of seniors face pressures. With regard to delivering more help to seniors, we know the carbon rebate assists seniors. They receive much more than what they consume, in terms of GHG emissions and so forth. We know that has helped.
I rose last week and said Canada is the best country in the world. This is Canada's decade. Not only because of our economic policies but because of the social policies we put in place, such as the Canadian dental care plan, the Canada child benefit, our early learning and national day care plan, and the Canada workers benefit. Our social fabric has been strengthened. Yes, we have our challenges. Yes, Canadians have been pressured by global inflation, which now is back down to 2%, the bank's target rate, which, in my humble opinion, will allow the Bank of Canada to further reduce the interest rate in the months to come. It has gone down 75 basis points. I hope to see much more, and as an economist, I think it will.
We continue to do the right thing. Equally important, we continue to do it within a fiscal framework that maintains our deficit-to-GDP ratio, one of the lowest in the G20; maintains our credit at a AAA rating; maintains the finances of the country in an envious position throughout the world. We know it. We know what the economists, the IMF and the World Bank say about Canada's fiscal position. It is a strength. Anybody who has worked in the global financial markets, like myself, would know that and would say that we maintained it. We will continue to maintain it, and we are going to continue to move forward to help all Canadians, whether it is families, seniors, workers or businesses. It is great to see all these small businesses popping up and growing in the city of Vaughan. I have attended probably about a dozen new small-business openings. It is wonderful to see that confidence back. Yes, we have gone through some hard times. We had the global pandemic. We have war in Europe for the first time in 80 years. We had supply chain blocks. We had global inflation. Nonetheless, Canada is strong, and its best days are ahead of us. I know that. I believe in that and I cannot wait to keep going forth and advocating and putting forward policies that will continue to strengthen our country.
