Human Resources committee  Yes. CARP is firmly on record as supporting that. Many countries offer a caregivers allowance, in the U.K., Australia, and even in Canada. Nova Scotia has a program—not well publicized—that individuals can get $100 a week for providing care. It's means-tested, and should be,

Human Resources committee  I think so. One of the reasons that CARP has supported the HomEquity Bank is that's another organization that helps people—especially as they're in their final frail years—access some additional funds to pay for caregivers, for home renovations, to do the things that allow them

Human Resources committee  We put far too much emphasis on financial literacy and consumers and not nearly enough on how we can make that process simpler, fair, and more accessible. I would really encourage the committee to look at what the U.K. does, where lower-income individuals—in fact, many individual

Human Resources committee  I don't have any off the top of my head, but let me provide that to the committee.

Human Resources committee  Essentially, a national pharmacare program would save significant dollars, but it's a bit of a political hill to climb because you're going to have to fund the taxes to pay for it. In many cases, individuals are now paying premiums through their companies or, through CARP plans,

Human Resources committee  One of the things I mentioned is that housing is very much a seniors issue, but what we hear anecdotally is that seniors have issues accessing housing, and that agencies will often prefer families. Even if there's a quota for so many individuals to have the housing for seniors, t

Human Resources committee  The type of thing we see is not what happens illegally but what happens legally, and particularly on the investor front, where we have financial advisers calling themselves things such as “seniors specialists” or “seniors advisers” and ending up recommending and putting clients i

Human Resources committee  One thing I think is critical is that we start to recognize that seniors aren't a homogenous group. There's a tremendous difference between young seniors at, say, 65 to 74, to middle seniors, to our most frail and elderly seniors. By looking at them as one group, we really miss t

Human Resources committee  We're proposing something called “super-priority” for pensions. Frankly, I think it's egregious that our corporations would, as Sears has done, sell off assets, make a dividend of $500 million to primarily a U.S. parent, and leave the pension plan underfunded by $300 million. Wha

Human Resources committee  The best way to protect vulnerable seniors is not to have any in the first place. If we can take steps right now to improve financial security and health for individuals to make sure that they reach retirement healthy and financially secure, that will greatly improve how things h

Human Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. The issues are complex, they are interrelated, and we've seen where we get by taking ad hoc pieces and trying to address them. I think it's critical.

Human Resources committee  I will come with the final points. We need to share tax information between different levels of government. In Ontario, for example, in determining who gets reduced copays on provincial drugs, the only information the province has is on who is eligible for GIS, so they have an a

Human Resources committee  Thanks very much. I'm going to talk to you briefly about CARP. We are a 300,000-member advocacy organization with our primary membership in Ontario, followed by British Columbia, Alberta, and Nova Scotia. I will also say that we are going to be in Ottawa on October 25, and I l

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. What we hear from so many people is that they wish they had saved more back when they were working, that if they had known then what they know now, they would have saved more. There's a lot of research on the benefits of nudging people to do certain things, but a defi

Status of Women committee  Sure. There are three things. One is to change the caregiver tax credits to make them refundable so an individual doesn't have to be earning an income to be able to access them. Second would be a means-tested caregiver allowance at a minimum of $100 a week, which is the Nova Sco