44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 15, 2022 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I listened to the speech by my colleague from Hastings—Lennox and Addington, and I took notes, especially when she was talking about recognizing the dignity of workers.
The Bloc Québécois made its position very clear during the election campaign: We want old age security to be increased by $110 a month starting at 65. We will not create two classes of seniors. We want to be sure to increase seniors' purchasing power because everything costs more now, including groceries and housing.
My question for my Conservative colleague is this: Does she think that the Liberals are being stingy?
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Terrebonne and, who knows, perhaps little Hadrien as well.
In my time as the member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue, I have heard from many seniors in my riding who are very frustrated about their financial insecurity. They can no longer pay their bills.
Seniors have been the primary victims of COVID‑19. They are the ones more likely to die and to suffer the repercussions of the coronavirus. By repercussions, I mean isolation, anxiety and loss of purchasing power.
In my region of Abitibi—Témiscamingue, much like in the rest of Quebec and Canada, there are seniors who continue to work, in spite of their advanced age. They are still working because they still need an income to live independently.
I remember one woman from Témiscamingue whose supplementary income suddenly disappeared when the schools in Témiscamingue were shut down for months because of the health measures. She could no longer make ends meet but still had to pay her mortgage and car loan, so she applied for the Canada emergency response benefit, the much-touted CERB, as did many other seniors.
She was in for a nasty surprise. A few months after she applied, her guaranteed income supplement was massively clawed back to cover the CERB she had collected. That was a significant hit to her income for months. She spent many long months in a state of anxiety, constantly worried because she could not cover her payments.
That is what I heard from one person in my riding and, sadly, hers is not an isolated case. There are tens of thousands like it all over Quebec and Canada.
The worst of it is that the Liberal government responded by insisting that every CERB dollar received by a senior would result in a 50% cut to their GIS. That is equivalent to a federal taxation rate of 50%. It is the rich who should be taxed at 50%, not the most vulnerable members of our society.
It is appalling and shameful, all the more so because the Liberal government was well aware of the situation thanks to letters the Bloc Québécois sent to the Minister of Seniors and the Minister of Finance in 2021 describing the awful situation that so many seniors found themselves in. It is appalling and shameful because the Liberal Party did not seem to care about the problem these seniors are facing. It took ages to respond even though it has known about this difficult situation since May 2021. That is nine months, and it is way too long.
That is why, despite Bill C-12's shortcomings, the Bloc Québécois will vote to support it because time is running out. Why did the Liberal government wait so long to act? At the very least, the federal government should be able to exclude emergency benefits from the calculation of the guaranteed income supplement payable for any month after June 2022. This will avoid further penalizing GIS recipients as of July 2022.
Bill C-12 is a first step in ending the negative impact CERB has had on the GIS, but it will be too late if it does not happen until July. GIS payments have been reduced since July 1, 2021. For several months now, this has weakened the already precarious financial situation of many seniors. The Bloc Québécois has urged the government to move up the end of its cuts by changing the wording of the bill from “June 2022” to “March 2022”. This change, which would have increased benefit payments more quickly for seniors affected by this problem, was refused, supposedly for IT reasons, which we obviously deplore.
What is more, Bill C‑12 does not contain the retroactive one‑time payment that was promised in the December 2021 economic and fiscal update for reductions that had already been made. The fiscal update read: “The government proposes to provide up to $742.4 million for one-time payments to alleviate the financial hardship of GIS...recipients who received CERB or the Canada Recovery Benefit”.
It is hard for us to understand where the Liberal government is going with this. I think that it is improvising at seniors' expense. I think that this Parliament is not doing enough for seniors. We could do so much more.
Because of the many obstacles that seniors have faced, I personally have decided to start a seniors advisory committee in my riding. Now more than ever, I feel the need to bring the voice of seniors in my region to the House of Commons, because for far too long, they have been the most vulnerable and the most neglected by the Liberal government.
I am speaking in particular of those in rural and remote areas, where people must travel great distances, where there is little or no public transportation, where services are limited and, in some villages, non-existent.
Parliament is not doing enough for our seniors. We must be generous to our seniors. With their intelligence, tenacity, and the taxes they paid, they built everything that we use today: our houses, roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, factories, neighbourhoods and city centres. Our great-grandparents, grandparents and parents who are still living directly or indirectly built everything we own and made us everything we are. This pride has been weakened, and unfortunately that reflects how vulnerable our seniors are today.
We must cherish them and show greater appreciation for them. That is what the Bloc Québécois wants for seniors. That is why the Bloc Québécois is concerned with the quality of life they deserve to have. Seniors were hit the hardest by the pandemic and have received the least amount of support from the federal government.
That is why the Bloc Québécois, through our critic for seniors, the member for Shefford, launched a petition to ensure that our seniors have a decent quality of life. I invite everyone to consult the member for Shefford's Facebook page to link to this petition and to sign it.
That is also why the Bloc Québécois has proposed a series of measures to improve the standard of living for the people who built Quebec, in every single one of our regions, and to bolster their purchasing power. In Parliament, the Bloc Québécois raised the urgent need for legislators to increase old age security by $110 per month for all seniors 65 and older. Furthermore, the Bloc Québécois rejects any attempt to create two classes of seniors through age-based discrimination. Lastly, archaic and discriminatory provisions must be abolished from the Pension Act.
Surviving spouses of pensioners whose marriage or common-law relationship took place after the age of 60 or after retirement are not eligible to receive their late spouse's pension. The Bloc Québécois is calling for these discriminatory practices to be repealed. These provisions are an affront to the dignity of seniors who worked, for example, within the federal public service or in the Canadian Armed Forces. Quebeckers want seniors to enjoy a retirement that reflects the lifelong work they put into helping their families, communities and nation flourish. That is exactly what the Bloc Québécois wants.
This cannot be overstated: Health is Quebeckers' top priority. More than anything else, the pandemic showed us how important it is to strengthen Quebec's health care system. Service cuts in our health care centres this summer made it clear that the consequences of Ottawa's chronic health care underfunding will outlast the end of the pandemic. Ottawa needs to pay its fair share so people who are suffering can access quality health care and so our dedicated health care workers can get reinforcements and the working conditions they deserve.
The federal government needs to increase health transfers, no strings attached, to cover 35% of health care services, as Quebec and the provinces are unanimously demanding. The Bloc would also support home care by means of a tax credit. Quebeckers expect higher health transfers, and the Bloc Québécois has made that its number one issue.
Prices have been rising since 2021. Inflation is the highest it has been in over 35 years. Food prices have gone way up. Housing costs too. This is catastrophic for all lower-income seniors.
The Liberal Party is on the wrong track. Its only solutions are totally inadequate one-time payments. It also chose to create two classes of seniors by increasing OAS only for those 75 and up. That is unacceptable. In closing, let me reiterate: Parliament is not doing enough for our seniors.
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Madam Speaker, I am always on the lookout for any opportunity to increase seniors' purchasing power. There are always measures and traps in what the NDP presents, so I will remain vigilant.
Let us put ourselves in the shoes of a senior. We have all visited seniors' homes in our ridings, and we have all received phone calls from seniors who are sure there has been an error because the amount on their pension cheque has changed by 34¢ or 6¢ or 8¢. Seniors are forced to count every last penny because their purchasing power has decreased significantly over the years. I say this again in all sincerity. I think the government is being cheap when it comes to seniors, and that has to change. It is a matter of dignity.
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Madam Speaker, I can see how you could get the member for Mirabel and the member for Trois-Rivières mixed up. I must admit that I confuse the two as well sometimes.
I thank my colleague from Trois-Rivières for his excellent question. Obviously, it is duly noted. I would remind members of what may be the most egregious part of the bill. It does not fix the entire issue of seniors, as it is only a small step. However, why does it not specify March 2022 as the date? That would be so simple.
Instead, the government is putting things off another three months by postponing increasing seniors' purchasing power until July. Seniors who are already affected by the pandemic, who cannot see their loved ones, who cannot spend time with their grandchildren, and whose mental health has already suffered over the past few years are anxious enough without this added major financial stress. The wealthy are not the ones going through this hardship. They are not the ones who are counting—
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nunavut, whom I am getting to know this evening. I thank her for being here.
If there is one thing in this file for which we should turn to the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and the Inuit, it is their relationship with our seniors. We have a lot to learn in that regard.
The decade from 2022 to 2032 is the Decade of Indigenous Languages. We must take heed and provide services in indigenous languages. It is essential. I personally consider French to be a language that is under threat, just like all the indigenous languages. My colleague can count on my support for—
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. Her compassion shines through.
My question for her is very simple. How does she explain that the bill says June 2022 instead of March 2022? Would it have been possible to simply change the date and stop the benefit reductions sooner? Would that not show more compassion? Why did the Liberal government not do that?
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nunavut for her eloquent speech.
I would like to hear what she has to say about the services that the Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada provide to the Inuit and indigenous peoples. I understand that there is a serious lack of communication from these departments and that many errors could otherwise have been avoided.
How does she propose that the government improve service delivery, especially to the first nations?
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