Human Resources committee  It would be on top if they're paying income tax—

Human Resources committee  —and certainly some of them would be paying income tax.

Human Resources committee  I don't have the post-tax rate, no. It's really related to the reduction rates for our programs.

Human Resources committee  I can't speak to whether the department should monitor it as a whole, but I can say that programs do monitor it on the basis of their own individual programs.

Human Resources committee  I'll start and StatsCan can weigh in and complement. Thank you for the question. Absolutely, the government committed to creating an index that more accurately reflects the price increases that seniors face. We're calling it the “seniors price index”. It would be used to adjust

Human Resources committee  I can't speak for all programs in the department, but for the old age security program, we pay attention to the marginal effective tax rate. We also pay attention to the interaction between provincial programs, which may also have a reduction rate that creates a marginal effectiv

Human Resources committee  For the guaranteed income supplement, there are two reduction rates. Those who are on the guaranteed income supplement top-up, which are those with incomes under about $8,500 of other income, would experience a reduction rate of $1 for every $4 of other income they have. For thos

Human Resources committee  I can categorically say that it wasn't a member of my team who did this analysis, so I'm not able to provide a response to that today. I could take that back, but I'm not in a position to respond to that question.

Human Resources committee  I think Minister Duclos' discussion paper that was tabled absolutely indicates that poverty is multi-faceted. It's complicated, as our colleagues from Statistics Canada have said. It really depends on the social consensus around what that means and how someone can be economically

Human Resources committee  Let's see if I have that stat with me. I don't have that handy.

Human Resources committee  I would have to get back to you. That's the number of Canadian seniors who are part of a couple and who are not eligible for the GIS?

Human Resources committee  I'm not sure if that's accurate. I know that there are 1.5 million seniors receiving the guaranteed income supplement, both married and single, and of course those who are married receive it at the married rate, which is lower than the rate for seniors. What we do know, though, i

Human Resources committee  The government has always recognized the contribution of seniors and has wanted to ensure that income levels, low-income levels, are protected in retirement, as someone moves from employment to what is often a fixed income. Historically, there have been lots of measures to reduce

Human Resources committee  Thank you for your question. With respect to the increase in the guaranteed income supplement, the increase was $947 per year for Canadian single seniors, and that benefits 900,000 single seniors. It will lift about 13,000 of those seniors above the LICO, the low-income cut-off.

Human Resources committee  I actually don't define poverty in the context of my work. We measure the performance of our old age security and guaranteed income supplement program based on the use of the LICO, the low-income cut-off. The reason we use the low-income cut-off is that we have a longer time seri