44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 15, 2022 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I would like to inform you that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Scarborough—Agincourt.
I am very pleased to participate in this debate, but I must admit that I am wondering why we are debating this motion tonight when we could quickly take action. If there is one time when members should be unanimous, it is this evening on this bill.
We are here to debate Bill C-12, an act to amend the Old Age Security Act to provide a guaranteed income supplement exemption. I would like to explain this to the Canadians who are watching at home. Usually when we study a bill, it involves a rather complex process. To make amendments to a law, often many changes are needed here and there. We must be certain of the changes to be made. In this case, it is very simple.
In the French version of the bill, only five lines were changed. Those five lines will change our tax system to eliminate a problem for seniors. All political parties in the House of Commons recognize that this problem must be fixed.
My wonderful colleague from northern Ontario just expressed his approval. Earlier today there were speeches by Bloc Québécois members who indicated their support. The NDP members have said they support it. I cannot figure out why we are still debating this motion. We may even end up straying from the topic because some of the parties like playing political games.
We really have to meet the needs of Canada's seniors. That is why I am urging my opposition party colleagues, especially the Conservative and Bloc Québécois members, to approve this. I hope that, once they have read these five lines, they will give their approval so we can get on with it.
We know how we got to this point. The pandemic hit. Unfortunately, some seniors who had been working part time or full time to earn extra money had to stop working. The pandemic caused problems for everyone in Canada. People lost their jobs overnight. Everyone did their part to stop the spread of the virus.
They had access to some substantial programs that we created to support Canadians and our businesses. They received money from the Canada emergency response benefit, or CERB.
As my colleagues know, our public pension benefits and the guaranteed income supplement are calculated every year based on income received the previous year. These people will unfortunately be affected by this change, but amendments will solve this problem.
I want to take a moment to explain exactly how it works. As many of my colleagues have already pointed out, these people will be penalized for this tax year, and we do not want that to happen, as we have heard from many people who have contacted our offices. We need to address this issue, and that is exactly what we are proposing to do.
That is why I think it is important for us to take swift action, and that is what I am prepared to do. It is almost 7:40 p.m. eastern time. If everyone were to agree right now that no one else will speak to this bill, we could proceed directly to the vote. That would be a good thing for Canadians and would reassure them that we are finally going to fix this issue. The bill is a short one, with just five lines.
That is why I think we need to take action, and I hope to convince my colleagues to join me.
I want to be clear and remind everyone what Bill C‑12 will do. The bill will prevent the guaranteed income supplement and allowances from being reduced come July. That is it. This bill will stop a problem from happening. We all agree that pandemic-related benefits should not be considered income for the purposes of calculating the guaranteed income supplement. If we all agree, that is what Bill C‑12, a bill that is five lines long, will do. It is short, simple and clear. Let us get moving.
We are moving quickly because we know that these supports need to be put into place quickly. As I have already mentioned, the system changes that are needed would be put into place by our incredible public servants, who are going to make sure that this happens in time.
Seniors who have had to access these benefits to make ends meet during a public health crisis might be penalized because their Conservative and Bloc representatives are incapable of setting partisanship aside and are trying to thwart the process. That would be unfair.
Once again, this should not surprise my colleagues. Unfortunately, the Conservatives have shown every step of the way that they are not there for Canadians, despite what the member who rose before me said:
“We have your backs.”
That is something the Prime Minister often says. If the Conservatives want to borrow our words, I encourage them to also get on board with how quickly we want to take action.
On behalf of seniors, I hope my Conservative and Bloc Québécois friends will join us in supporting this motion without amendment, so we can deliver for seniors who need this support, seniors who have given so much throughout their lives.
I know my colleagues support seniors. I encourage them to join us in getting this bill passed quickly so we can be there for Canadians.
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Mr. Speaker, we are not perfect, but we try our best. We came up with many innovative ways to help support Canadians. I would like to thank the opposition parties, because during the beginning of the crisis, they were also there and Parliament did its best in supporting Canadians. I am very pleased to be part of a government that proposed these ideas and took on the best ideas of the opposition.
We are, I hope, coming near the end of this pandemic. We all hope that. However, we are not quite there yet; we are still in it. We have an opportunity to help seniors right now, and I ask my hon. colleagues across the way to once again join hands and do what we did at the front end of this pandemic and support our seniors. There are five simple lines that we can adopt to make this happen.
This is very important. I hope my colleagues will be there to support this bill.
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Mr. Speaker, I am a really big believer in the parliamentary process. Usually, when we come to this place, we examine very complex pieces of legislation. It makes sense that we cannot always consider things as 338 people, so we send them to committee to be looked at. Those 12 people look very carefully at legislation.
The bill is just five lines. It is not going to take us a long time to figure this out. I am certain the members across the way have come to an assessment of where they are, because all their speeches have said they are going to support it. Why not get ahead of the game and bring security to our seniors to show them we all have their backs and want to get this passed right away?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Trois-Rivières for his question. We work together at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, and it is a pleasure for me.
I agree, we must be very diligent. However, we are talking about five lines here. It is not complex. It is very simple. Not only do we all agree on the principle, but I am sure that we all agree on the text itself.
That is why I think that in this case, we can all unite to pass this bill immediately and provide reassurance to our seniors.
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