Status of Women committee  As I said earlier, we did the research on it and it showed, not surprisingly, that a very small number of people with earnings getting GIS.

Status of Women committee  Yes. It's one of those vulnerable areas we're aware of, like the homeless. Remote communities are a problem, and aboriginal communities have an even bigger problem. We did a project with the Assembly of First Nations and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs together. First, we're trying to get a good sense of the scope of the issue, and we're also looking at how we can reach out to them.

Status of Women committee  At this stage, we're just doing a research exercise together. Once we get to that point, we'll have an opportunity to bring in the broader community.

Status of Women committee  I'd love to provide that to you. It's a huge document, but I think we have it now in an electronic format, so we'll provide it to the committee.

Status of Women committee  We were digging around in our Nova Scotia office for ideas...and it's not a women's issue for us. Both boys and girls have the same challenge of understanding what the responsibilities are through the course of life, especially into the senior years. As my colleagues would tell you, if you do things right when you're young, it works out a lot better.

Status of Women committee  Sorry, I was just going to offer—you said you were a teacher. I couldn't resist—

Status of Women committee  I appreciate the question, because I'm also interested, understanding that the benefit is about getting above the measures that are out there. What does that really mean at the end of the day? There's a big difference in the senior population, for example, between living in a house that you've owned for 40 years and still having to pay rent.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. There are two rules. One was the pension sharing, which, you're right, is voluntary. It's almost a tax planning tool. Credit splitting is a different rule that's available, and it is for divorced and—

Status of Women committee  No, you have to come in and let us know that you're being divorced or you're separating and you wish to avail yourself of this rule. It's a pretty blunt instrument. They come in, and the CPP credit assets acquired during the period of cohabitation are split 50-50. We get a lot of correspondence on this.

Status of Women committee  No, this is just the splitting of CPP.

Status of Women committee  My pleasure. Yes, in fact, CPP is a contributory-based scheme. Once you're in the system, you will get your cheques right through to the very end. GIS is re-evaluated every year. The reason it's re-evaluated every year is that there are conditions of eligibility, the largest one being income.

Status of Women committee  I really can't say a lot about it, for good reason, because it's an arm's-length body that manages the fund. So the distribution of their portfolio is entirely up to them, and they report annually on it. As a contributor to the plan myself, I'm delighted to see the diversification they have.

Status of Women committee  As I think I mentioned, I'm going to leave my charts for the committee, which have the thresholds in them. Just to reiterate, yes, those other sources of income would be included and would reduce the amount of your GIS. The principle is very, very simple. It's really about getting as much money as possible in the hands of people who have none.

Status of Women committee  In fact, both the class action members and the government challenged the matter for different reasons, and both took the matter to the Supreme Court.

Status of Women committee  Yes.