Status of Women committee  It's $38; it would be peanuts. You're referring to Bill C-428, aren't you?

Status of Women committee  Yes, and $600 million of that is due to the increase in the GIS.

Status of Women committee  It's for the low-income immigrants that this bill is costly. It's estimated to cost $700 million per year.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  With regard to what is referred to in English as the take-up rate, a Statistics Canada study was published recently. In 2000, the much-talked-about take-up rate, or the percentage of those eligible for and receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement compared to the total number of

Status of Women committee  But I can check with the people at StatsCan who conducted the survey to find out if they have the exact figures.

Status of Women committee  What we do know is that the take-up rate by women is very similar. I do not have the exact figures, but I know that the Statistics Canada survey showed us that the improvement, since 2000, is also perceptible among women.

Status of Women committee  If I remember correctly, I believe it is slightly lower.

Status of Women committee  If I remember, I think right now the incidence of low income among seniors is 4.8%. That's based on 2007 figures. I believe that if the GIS did not exist, that rate would be around 16%. So the GIS makes a big difference.

Status of Women committee  For a single individual to receive GIS you need to have an income below roughly $15,000. Above that, you're not entitled. For couples, it's around $22,000.

Status of Women committee  Hi. We don't have any numbers with us today, but we can look at the projections made by the office of the chief actuary. They've done a lot of projections. I can check to see if they've done any projections based on gender. So I can get back to you on that.

Status of Women committee  All of our projections are made by the office of the chief actuary, so I will check with them.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for your question. I have with me my colleague, André Thivierge, who is the director of international agreements. If I may, I will ask André to answer your question.