Finance committee  When I read this whole thing that you're sending us to comment on, and it's all talking about jobs and skills and what we need to bring our country up in the world today, I just can't believe we're cutting literacy. How are we going to have new jobs, how are we going to have skil

Finance committee  Literacy is a problem, especially when we're trying to help seniors help themselves in regard to health programs. I know there's some wonderful information out there, but it's all in writing. We don't take literacy into consideration. We also offer it in French and English. Are

Finance committee  Yes, I actually quite oppose the idea that they only get eleven months, or so many months, back payment. If they turn 65, they turn 65. What does it matter that they turned 65 eleven months ago or five years ago? They were still entitled to the money. They still have a right. It

Finance committee  The lower-income seniors, yes.

Finance committee  There is this thing called ageism. I think it has been going on for generations, where the older worker is looked down upon as, oh, that old fellow, or that old gal. I think we have ageism laws now. But I think those—

Finance committee  Yes, it is, and I think it's a terrible shame that when we have all those skilled people out there, we're not using them. Our brains don't die.

Finance committee  As I said, I think the GIS shouldn't be touched until that poor person comes up to the poverty level. But I understand there is no such thing. The government doesn't recognize a poverty level in Canada. Am I correct in that?

Finance committee  Yes, I think we have to take a complete look at our whole pension system. For instance, I have neighbours who are very poor because they can't get enough GIS to keep them alive. And yet we can send OAS outside the country, and help people in other countries, through our income ta

Finance committee  All right. I would recommend that there be a level, that they are allowed to make so much.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Well, look at the OAS system. You can get full OAS until you reach $60,000. So you are taking out of the taxpayer's pocket $487—let's use $500 as the general figure. You're giving every senior over the age of 65 in Canada, many of them living abroad, $500 until they reach $60,000

Finance committee  When they go out and try to help themselves by getting a job, and their GIS is taken away from them because they're trying to be self-sufficient, and their housing is raised to an unreasonable amount because they have to pay 25% of gross income, I think that's punishment.

Finance committee  And they still have a lot.

Finance committee  Unfortunately, when I go out to seniors' organizations and meetings in the south I'm shocked at how poorly seniors in other parts of Canada are treated compared with those in the Yukon territory. We do not pay for our medication in the Yukon; we have a marvellous pharmacare progr

Finance committee  The national program for seniors does help very much and has been very beneficial. As I said, any tax breaks are for middle- and higher-income seniors. They are not for the people whom we are most concerned about, the seniors with a lower income and in poverty, and I think the on