Status of Women committee  Most seniors that I come in contact with are not very demanding, and their lifestyles are relatively moderate. I don't have any measure, but it would seem to me that if we could spend a very little amount of money on making sure there is a certain amount of security, there is a c

Status of Women committee  I have three priorities with regard to senior women. Number one is that the amount of the GIS should be increased so that the sum of GIS and OAS is equal to or greater than the low-income cut-off. It's much too low right now. Two is that we reinvest in affordable housing, which I

Status of Women committee  I think we will, except the point that I was trying to make was that there is still a vulnerable group of seniors, and that's the unattached. That group is not going to see any improvement, and that's the signal I'm giving here today. Otherwise, yes, you will, because women hav

Status of Women committee  It's about that 60% mark, yes.

Status of Women committee  I will meet him in 15 minutes.

Status of Women committee  We met him in February, a few days after his appointment. We were in Ottawa for a meeting. It was an opportunity to see him and we will see him again this morning.

Status of Women committee  Not as far as I know. I must tell you I have been only three months in this position. But I can ask around. It is difficult to know the direct costs related to women's poverty, because that population changes rapidly. The number of seniors will increase considerably in a few yea

Status of Women committee  We are the advisory for seniors and the big boss is the minister of Health.

Status of Women committee  On the question of income-splitting of pensions, I'm not aware of any studies that have been done, but it would seem kind of easy to legislate if there was the political willingness. I understand it's already on the books in certain provinces. Quebec is certainly one of them, wit

Status of Women committee  You mentioned something about housing. That's something we haven't really discussed today. The flavour of the month in aging is home care. Home care dictates that you live in a home or you live in a residence for seniors. The Canadian government has not been in the business of of

Status of Women committee  In our particular case, the example I gave was of an unattached older woman; consequently, there is no income-splitting there. As a matter of fact, that's the problem, that they are relying only on their own particular income. Many of them, for many reasons, have not even asked f

Status of Women committee  In our particular case, our studies have indicated that immigrant women, when they do retire, have very little income to count on. Most rely on just the pension and the supplement, and that's really insufficient. Obviously the single, unattached older woman is very vulnerable.

Status of Women committee  Good morning, and thank you very much for inviting us. The mandate of the National Advisory Council on Aging is to advise the Minister of Health on all matters related to the aging of the Canadian population and the quality of life of seniors. For more than 25 years, NACA has