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Finance committee Thank you for inviting the Yukon Council on Aging to participate in your pre-budget consultation. I'd like to address your first theme, that is, that our citizens are healthy, have proper skills, and are presented with appropriate incentives to work and save. When we speak of
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee The national program for seniors does help very much and has been very beneficial. As I said, any tax breaks are for middle- and higher-income seniors. They are not for the people whom we are most concerned about, the seniors with a lower income and in poverty, and I think the on
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee We thoroughly enjoyed it, and the people of Manitoba were fantastic.
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee Yes.
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee Well, look at the OAS system. You can get full OAS until you reach $60,000. So you are taking out of the taxpayer's pocket $487—let's use $500 as the general figure. You're giving every senior over the age of 65 in Canada, many of them living abroad, $500 until they reach $60,000
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee When they go out and try to help themselves by getting a job, and their GIS is taken away from them because they're trying to be self-sufficient, and their housing is raised to an unreasonable amount because they have to pay 25% of gross income, I think that's punishment.
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee And they still have a lot.
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee Unfortunately, when I go out to seniors' organizations and meetings in the south I'm shocked at how poorly seniors in other parts of Canada are treated compared with those in the Yukon territory. We do not pay for our medication in the Yukon; we have a marvellous pharmacare progr
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee The lower-income seniors, yes.
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee There is this thing called ageism. I think it has been going on for generations, where the older worker is looked down upon as, oh, that old fellow, or that old gal. I think we have ageism laws now. But I think those—
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee Yes, it is, and I think it's a terrible shame that when we have all those skilled people out there, we're not using them. Our brains don't die.
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee As I said, I think the GIS shouldn't be touched until that poor person comes up to the poverty level. But I understand there is no such thing. The government doesn't recognize a poverty level in Canada. Am I correct in that?
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee Yes, I think we have to take a complete look at our whole pension system. For instance, I have neighbours who are very poor because they can't get enough GIS to keep them alive. And yet we can send OAS outside the country, and help people in other countries, through our income ta
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee All right. I would recommend that there be a level, that they are allowed to make so much.
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan
Finance committee Yes, I actually quite oppose the idea that they only get eleven months, or so many months, back payment. If they turn 65, they turn 65. What does it matter that they turned 65 eleven months ago or five years ago? They were still entitled to the money. They still have a right. It
October 2nd, 2006Committee meeting
Roberta Morgan