44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 1, 2022 10:00AM
- Nov/1/22 2:14:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday was Halloween, and in Edmonton Strathcona we welcomed children yelling “trick or treat”, rewarding them with sweet treats. It is a good thing they will have dental care, but trick or treating season did not end last night. For two million seniors, the tricks just keep coming.
In 2012, Stephen Harper announced his plan to change the age of eligibility for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement from 65 to 67, and Canadians were outraged. Seeing an opportunity, no doubt, the Liberal government restored the age of eligibility for old age security and GIS back to 65.
However, with the government, there is always a trick. This year, the overdue and necessary 10% increase for OAS became a trick when, surprise, the government decided to leave some seniors out. This increase goes only to seniors aged 75 and older. Seniors aged 65 to 74 are being left holding an empty bag.
All seniors are facing the same costs. It is time to stop playing tricks on seniors. All seniors need an increase. All seniors deserve an increase.
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- Nov/1/22 3:05:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, massive Liberal deficits have caused 40-year high inflation, resulting in major increases to the cost of living.
I have many seniors in my riding like Cathy who, at 68 years of age, has had to go back to work in order to pay for utilities, food and her mortgage payments. As well, a disabled constituent reached out to me by email this weekend, indicating that she is down to one meal per day and, in her words, is contemplating applying for assisted death instead of starving to death.
What is the government doing for 65- to 74-year-olds and will the Liberals stop punishing them and cancel all tax increases on gas, groceries and home heating?
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- Nov/1/22 3:06:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will not take any lessons from the party opposite, whose plan for seniors was to raise the age of retirement to 67 and attack their pensions.
On this side of the House, we restored that age back to 65. We enhanced the CPP. We increased the guaranteed income supplement, which lifted thousands of seniors out of poverty. We also increased the OAS by 10%. We are delivering on doubling the GST credit. With the payments that are going to be going out this Friday, we are going to continue to deliver for all Canadians, including seniors and those living with disabilities.
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- Nov/1/22 3:33:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague talked about seniors. As the critic for seniors, I obviously paid very close attention to that part of his speech. Seniors' groups in my riding and elsewhere in Quebec have talked to me about the ArriveCAN app. They were, perhaps, disproportionately affected by it.
I would like my colleague to comment on how we can really help seniors. He also spoke about inflation and the carbon tax. That is not what seniors in my riding are asking for to deal with inflation. They are asking for an increase in the old age security pension, the way Canada has of helping them, for all seniors, including those between the ages of 65 and 74.
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- Nov/1/22 3:33:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, seniors in different areas of the country have different issues that are impacting them. For example, in Saskatchewan, if there was no carbon tax, their pensions, OAS and GIS would go further. There are lots of other initiatives that would help seniors. As far as the motion goes, seniors were writing to my office throughout the pandemic. They were vaccinated and met all the requirements, but they were still forced to quarantine for 14 days. This meant they had issues getting their prescriptions and getting to medical appointments. I had one guy, for example, who needed surgery on his eye, but his driver, who was his wife and happened to be an American citizen and a permanent resident of Canada, lost her ability to drive him to that appointment. They did not know what to do. There was a big issue there.
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- Nov/1/22 4:12:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member's record in the past has not been so kind, so I appreciate it.
The magnitude of the fault of this app extends so far. When we think about a little convenience store that benefits from somebody crossing the border to come visit their parents, that benefits from tourism, how do we calculate that when that person did not get to cross the border because the Liberals doubled down in August and made it only digital. Seniors, anybody who did not have a smart phone, or anybody who did not want to download the app could not use it. If that is not discriminatory, I do not know what is.
I do not know how many seniors came into my constituency office and said they did not know how to use the app and asked me to help them. Then, when we would do it together, it would work. We will hear Liberals say that it worked fine, and I am sure it worked fine sometimes, but that is not good enough when we have a whole industry at stake. That is not good enough when we are supposed to be helping Canadians restore travel confidence. That is not good enough when people are wrongfully fined and quarantined. This happened to 10,000 people.
This is absolutely an important motion we should all be open to, because why are we elected? We are elected to serve our constituents, to serve Canadians. Why are we elected? We are elected to be accountable. If there is a $54-million app and the government does not know how it was paid for, then we owe it to Canadians to find out why.
Again, please let us get the Auditor General to conduct an audit, including the payments, contracts and subcontracts for all aspects of the ArriveCAN app, and to prioritize this investigation.
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