Finance committee  Yes, we do. We've had some suggestions, as you've seen in our letter from our coalition of groups, but certainly that's the kind of direction that will take great strides to make this wrong a right.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for this opportunity to speak to you today on Bill C-228. My name is Bill VanGorder. I'm the chief operating officer of CARP, which is also known as the Canadian Association of Retired Persons. We're a national, non-partisan

Finance committee  Well, of course, the lack of appropriate numbers of staff and qualified staff in all facilities and in home care and community care situations is very important to us. One of the problems that our members are seeing is that with the attention being put on having more workers in l

Finance committee  Certainly it's helpful and welcome, but more is needed. It's not enough. Once again, this government is dealing with an issue that we've been talking about in the province for 20 years. Now they've come home to roost and we need to make up for those 20 years. The best time to p

Finance committee  The second question is related to the difference between getting the OAS at 75 or 65. Yes, our members think that's a real problem. They don't know why anybody would consider that being fair when we know that the younger generation of seniors, the younger generation that's just b

Finance committee  Thank you for both questions. On the first one, CARP believes strongly that there are problems in long-term care in all sectors. That's why we're so concerned about having immediate, enforceable, monitored and followed through on standards for all long-term care. Our experience

Finance committee  Yes, certainly. CARP has been advocating for appropriate national standards in long-term care on the basis that your postal code should not determine the level of care you get. CARP has been very strong on this issue. We are pleased to see the intention that seems to be indicate

Finance committee  If I might say this just quickly, we know that the stumbling block is working with the provinces, and we are prepared to work with our members in the provinces to support the getting together of the federal and the provincial governments to solve this problem. Seniors are tired o

Finance committee  They are happy that the OAS benefit was increased, or will be increased, but they don't think it's enough and they don't think it's soon enough. The 10% for seniors when they turn 75 and then indexed to inflation was what had been promised, but they also wanted increases to the C

Finance committee  No, we have not.

Finance committee  We might, yes.

Finance committee  I said the perception was that there was very little done. The perception of most older adults was there was $300 given to them last June, and $200 more if they were particularly poor, with now another $500 announced for some of them for this year. Otherwise, they've seen large s

Finance committee  A simple answer is yes.

Finance committee  I'm certainly not in a position to comment on why it could happen. I can certainly tell you what seniors' reactions are. I can tell you that there are a number of people—my friends—who are very jealous of me because I'll actually get it and they won't, and we're not that far apar

Finance committee  You're quite right. People on fixed incomes, seniors, no matter what their income is fixed at—and this is one of the areas that we're often very concerned about.... We often have governments tell us that they'll look after the low-income people. However, the low-income people, un