Government Business No. 7—Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member opposite for her speech. I so enjoyed working with her when we were on the status of women committee together. I know she has a heart for her community. One of things I find troubling about the amount of time the government has delayed this is the number of people in my riding who have fallen into homelessness and have not been able to get any kind of help from it.

Government Business No. 7—Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, I share the concerns of the member from the Bloc who just talked about the government not being in a hurry. I started flagging this problem in March of last year, yet the government took six months off, called an election that no one wanted in a pandemic and followed that by taking its time to resume Parliament and bring this forward.

Government Business No. 7—Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that my colleague does have a head for specific details, and that is something that we need when we look at these bills. I think there is also a trust issue going on here. When we rapidly passed all the COVID protections and supports at the beginning of the pandemic, with the understanding that we would fine-tune them as we went, we saw a lot of gaps and lots of people falling through the cracks.

Government Business No. 7—Proceedings on Bill C-12  Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Salaberry—Suroît for her excellent speech. I worry when I hear the government say that it needs another computer system to pay seniors. I remember Phoenix, which did not work for five years. Why does the government need another system when the funds are usually deposited directly in Canadians’ bank accounts every month?

Government Business No. 7—Proceedings on Bill C‑12  Madam Speaker, the member opposite is from my former hometown of St. Catharines. I heard him talk about the increased OAS, and the $500 bonus that those over age 75 were going to get. I had been critical before that the government disenfranchised seniors between the ages of 65 and 75, but I noticed that the mandate letter of the minister says that she is supposed to increase the OAS and the GIS for seniors over 65.

Government Business No. 7--Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, I am definitely always happy to talk about my private member's bill. The problem is that we have seen seniors work their whole lives and expect to have a pension to retire on, and then the company goes bankrupt, pays big bonuses out to their executives and leaves the seniors with either no pension or pennies on the dollar.

Government Business No. 7--Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent question. I completely agree. Health is a provincial jurisdiction. However, I think there is not enough funding for the provinces to provide excellent care. What is more, while some provinces have very good practices, I would like everyone to be able to benefit from those best practices and for funding to be accessible to put those practices in place.

Government Business No. 7--Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, certainly I think that everybody needs to pay their fair share, but it is outrageous that 12 months has gone by. The government has known that this problem exists and has done nothing. If someone did not pay their rent for 12 months, would they have a place to live?

Government Business No. 7--Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, that is a great question. Absolutely, single senior women are the poorest. It is important to have a policy that recognizes that more money is needed for senior women living in poverty, because they are struggling to put a roof over their heads. More funding may be needed and pensions may have to increase to ensure that women can be properly housed.

Government Business No. 7--Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, my colleague has always been a strong advocate on these issues. We do need immediate action from the current government. As I pointed out in my speech, the Liberals know the bank account numbers. They made 800,000 other mistakes where they gave people money who did not deserve it and are trying to get it back now.

Government Business No. 7--Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, that is an extremely important point. Certainly we studied this when I was at the health committee and talked about what would go into national standards. In fact, there have been numerous reports written about what is required. At the end of the day, I support the best practices being leveraged across the country, but that is not where the limitation is.

Government Business No. 7--Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today to talk about one of my favourite topics, seniors, and I have now become one. I think it is really important that we have this discussion today. This is an opportunity for us to pull what I would call an ugly scab off of the issue of affordability for seniors, especially those living on a fixed income.

Government Business No. 7--Proceedings on Bill C-12  Mr. Speaker, one of the things I find really troubling is that, in the length of time that it has taken to address this issue, we know many seniors have been losing their homes. They cannot afford to eat. We know that with all of the many programs that were introduced by the government, with lots of little failures and things, they managed to put money into 800,000 people's accounts who really were not eligible to receive the benefits.

Old Age Security Act  Madam Speaker, I am very disheartened to see that the Liberals are continually trying to avoid parliamentary process. The Conservatives brought a reasoned amendment that said we recognized this was an important issue, and we would be willing to amend it at committee. I have been calling for a resolution since March of 2021.

COVID-19 Protests  Mr. Speaker, the Blue Water Bridge border crossing and the 402 highway in my riding are still being impacted by the lack of action from the Prime Minister on these trucking mandates. Provinces are listening to their medical experts and they are getting rid of the mandates. When is the Prime Minister going to follow the science, listen to the World Health Organization, work with President Biden and end these mandates?