Human Resources committee  I am not sure if the issues are different. I do know that in signing up for old age security, the guaranteed income supplement, and the Canada Pension Plan, all of that, language is an issue, especially for people who don't speak English or French. I've looked at the data about the take-up rates for these programs, and they do differ for cultures or for the north of Canada, for aboriginal communities.

Human Resources committee  I don't think that's me. I think it's the chief actuary.

Human Resources committee  GIS clawback, OAS fully indexed to wages rather than prices.... That's not cheap, and it's not targeted much. It goes to the middle income group. If I had one thing, it would be the GIS clawback. Instead of being $3,500 of wages only—it's not employment, only wages; self-employment is not exempt—it would be all income, because $3,500 of income regardless of source would have some huge benefits, on the RRSP side as well, because then you wouldn't be clawing back RRSP withdrawals.

Human Resources committee  Moving the age of eligibility for OAS from...?

Human Resources committee  Well, no. I wish I could pull the numbers out of the air about the amount of money that actually represents and how much it actually increases. Certainly the poverty rates for single seniors are in the 25% to 30% range—higher for women than for men. Those are going to chip away at them; those poverty rates will be smaller.

Human Resources committee  Both of those movements are in the direction of reducing poverty, but you're not there.

Human Resources committee  Because of the GIS clawback and the fact that some GIS recipients actually pay income tax, they're in this overlap. They pay income tax, but they also get GIS. If they take $1,000 out of their RRSP, it's taxable; then it's clawed back at the same 50%. If you put all those operations together with the GIS clawback, the paper I wrote....

Human Resources committee  These people are very careful. There is one comment I would make. The chief actuary is talking about something that's going to happen in 45 years. If you are making a forecast about the way the world is going to be in 45 years, even a very small difference in your assumptions will have a huge impact.

Human Resources committee  I wouldn't have said it that way. What happens is that, if you are a senior in Canada, you get partial OAS if you don't have 40 years of residency in Canada. All seniors who are immigrants are going to get reduced OAS if they have been here less than 40 years. If they are also on GIS, then the GIS will replace their missing OAS.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for this opportunity to discuss such an important and timely issue. I am here on behalf of the Ottawa Council on Aging. I sit on a panel of income security experts, former ADMs, and the former chief actuary of CPP, who give advice to the council. Our expert committee composed a recent report that the dependency ratio, the ratio of seniors to the working-age population, overstates the physical challenges posed by aging.