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Results: 1 - 13 of 13
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
Merci, Madam Folco.
It is a privilege for me to appear as a witness before this committee. As you may know, I was a member of this committee for several years, and I have been personally and directly engaged in many of the social issues this committee has dealt with. Many of my constituency members and organizations continue to lead in much of the social field. Many of you are interested in this particular field, and I know that many in your ridings also continue to work with you to ensure that we move forward in social development.
I appear before you today with Minister Dryden representing a new department with a renewed mandate. Minister Dryden has just provided a solid overview of our department, including the government's commitment to renew and strengthen social partnerships at all levels throughout the country. While much of our department's areas of responsibility have been well established for many years, the creation of Social Development Canada provides the opportunity to improve upon our services and to be more responsive to the social needs of Canadians.
For my part, in keeping with the nature of my portfolio, I would like to reflect on the government's specific commitment to families and caregivers. By creating the portfolio of Minister of State for Families and Caregivers, the government has clearly signalled its commitment to the issues and needs of seniors and caregivers. I feel very excited and very privileged to be given the task of shaping the government's response to these vitally important components of our society.
Madam Chair, when I speak of a caregiver, I refer to someone who cares for an aging parent or a family member with a disability, or both. Caregivers are Canada's unsung heroes who need and deserve our support. Many of us know people in that situation. Unless one has been a caregiver, it is difficult to comprehend the mix of emotions that can accompany this role. On the one hand, a caregiver has a strong desire to provide love and support to a family member. On the other hand, the sheer scope of the demands can lead to emotional and physical exhaustion, financial difficulties, and increased stress at work and in the family.
Given these immense challenges, I am proud that the Government of Canada has recognized the need to increase support for caregivers and their families. The support takes several forms, addressing the needs of seniors, people with disabilities, and families that care for them. The federal government currently allocates about $7.5 billion a year for benefits and tax measures, as well as program services, for Canadians with disabilities. This allocation includes $50 million for approximately 40,000 low- or moderate-income families taking care of a disabled child.
As noted in the Speech from the Throne, the government will build on these previous tax measures by drawing on the upcoming recommendations of the technical advisory committee on tax measures for persons with disabilities. It will also provide tax relief to Canadians who care for those with severe disabilities.
The Speech from the Throne also made a commitment that Parliament would consult across the country on possible additional initiatives to ease the burden on caregivers. I look forward to working with this committee in respect of this commitment, as our consultation with stakeholders and citizens will be a vital first step toward determining how the federal government can best act in this regard.
I also indicated at the recent federal-provincial-territorial meeting of ministers responsible for social services that the federal government would be pursuing a comprehensive strategy to recognize the growing role of caregivers in our society. I expressed to our provincial and territorial colleagues at the table our government's interest in working together across levels of government to achieve the best possible approach for these dedicated Canadians. Of course, I will work with you and our federal colleagues on this strategy. I welcome all of your input and look forward to working collaboratively with you in the ensuing months.
With respect to the needs of seniors, I'm pleased to note that Social Development Canada is taking action on several fronts that will directly and indirectly support caregivers. Last year our government created a task force on active living and dignity for seniors, which I was pleased to lead. In May we released our report creating the national seniors agenda. It examined current programming and community-based approaches and made 17 recommendations to improve the quality of life for seniors.
Madam Chair, those recommendations were driven by two imperatives: first, moving forward now to address the needs of today's most vulnerable seniors; and second, taking the steps needed to prepare for the growing number of seniors as our population ages. The Speech from the Throne outlined the government's desire to increase the guaranteed income supplement for low-income seniors, addressing the needs of Canada's poor seniors now. Work is also under way across all government departments as well as with our provincial and territorial partners to find ways to leverage our collective capacity as we work together to better align seniors-related policies, programs, and services.
Our department launched the new horizons program for seniors. This will support a wide range of community-based projects across Canada to encourage active living and participation among seniors. Through the new horizons program, seniors and their community partners can create projects that fit their unique needs. These projects may range from harnessing seniors' experience through mentorship to expanding volunteer activities for seniors and other vulnerable groups to strengthening relationships across generations. The new horizons program will receive $8 million in this fiscal year and $10 million a year thereafter. The program will directly help seniors who are in need and will allow seniors to help put their talents and energies to work in helping others in their communities. At the same time, it will directly ease the burden of caregivers by providing more opportunities for seniors to be active in the community.
Madam Chair, there will always be more that governments can do to support caregivers and families, but I believe this is a good start. We will continue to build on our strong social foundations to make them even more responsive to the needs of Canadians, improving their quality of life and maximizing their opportunities in this great country.
Thank you.
I would be pleased, with Minister Dryden, to answer your questions.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
First of all, it does go back one year on the retroactivity, which is similar to provincial governments and how all across the country they're dealing with it.
We continue reaching out, through mailings, through outreach persons, to try to get the message out. Anytime there's one person who's left out, it's something we feel bad about. All of us, including members of Parliament, have to try to reach out to our constituents to ensure that those who are eligible do receive what they're entitled to.
We continue to send out thousands, hundreds of thousands, of information pieces. We advertise in different languages. We continue doing things on that basis. It's incumbent on all of us to try to reach out to our constituents to achieve that.
In terms of beyond the one year, I don't know how you deal with that. It's certainly something we feel bad about, but it's following what all social programs have done in the past.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
An hon. member: I'd like to second that motion.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
Christiane, with the seniors, as you know, we continue reaching out. As I indicated earlier, the issue is not trying to ensure that anyone who is eligible doesn't receive it. We're going out of our way to try to make sure that happens.
In terms of the guaranteed income supplement, as you know, we're working toward an increase that will help 1.5 million Canadians in that process. We hope we get lucky in the budget and that it will go forward to the amount that was stated in the election platform. We're continually working toward that, because we believe...on one of the questions Mr. Forseth was asking Mr. Dryden, the way I see social development, it's the heart of the government. What we try to do is ensure that people have the tools; that people live with dignity; and that we ensure that all the people we referred to—whether it's those with a disability, the caregivers, the seniors, all the people who are vulnerable in our society—have the tools and enough money to live a quality of life that we all want for all Canadians, regardless of where they live.
We are working toward that, and we continue working, with your help, in terms of ensuring that if, because of tax purposes.... One year, one may not receive GIS, and the next year one may, due to circumstances, depending on their financial situation. So things do change. There's a flux in the system for those who may have received income, whether it's from their RRSPs or other sources, and then all of a sudden it stops. Once that stops, they may not realize they are eligible, and then they don't apply. What we are trying to do is ensure that all Canadians receiving old age security do understand that they should apply if something changes in their circumstances. With that, we'll continue working to ensure that they have the quality of life we all want for them.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
First of all, if you take into account a similar situation in Quebec, especially when the PQ were the government, of course, being socially understanding, their retroactivity was not longer than twelve months in any of their social programs. That concept unfortunately is followed across Canada by provinces and the federal government on that issue.
In terms of the amount of money that is being requested for the GIS increase, it is a substantial amount. If you take into account where you would place a dollar if you had it, I think I'd like to see the majority of seniors who are at the low-income level and living with difficulty have an increase so that they can have a better quality of life. Perhaps that would be better than putting it toward retroactivity, other than the twelve-month period we're dealing with.
So if it's a choice factor, I think I'd rather deal with the people who are suffering right now on a large scale.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
If I can just say something on that, from the $500 million-plus a year that's being spent on that for early childhood learning, we did speak with the provincial ministers at the time indicating that sometimes, unfortunately, many of our constituents, where these centres exist, don't know that it's federal government money. Unfortunately, even people who consider themselves knowledgeable in the field of child care often are so out of it that they haven't a clue that the federal government spends already, aside from the billion dollars a year for five years or $5 billion, all of this amount that's actually doing appreciably good work in our communities. I think the provincial ministers we spoke with indicated that they also understand they have a responsibility, aside from reporting, to communicate the message that they are in effect in partnership with the federal government, since it is our money, and to ensure that Canadians understand the quality that's being delivered.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
I think you're dealing with several issues. As you know, the maternity one-year leave addresses part of that equation. A progressive tax system also deals with some of those issues where there's a double income with more in and less that they get to keep because of the tax system. I think those are issues that address that somewhat.
When you're dealing with the choice factor on values, whether it's the three-year-old or eight-year-old, you have the same issue to deal with. We're trying to address people who don't have that particular concern but want to find ways in which they can continue supplying for their families. With the provinces and other stakeholders, how do we find a way to make spaces available so that they are not without choice? That's the issue. When we really try to address some of your concerns, it becomes a little bit more difficult to deal with from that perspective.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
If I can just add to that, Madam Chair, if I can just take on what Mr. Dryden was addressing, if you take into account even within social development me dealing with seniors and caregivers, it allows a minister to work with a department to give more focus to the issues for which he or she is responsible. So when you have HRDC, the old one that had so many perspectives within, taking the social development side on one side and the skills development on the other side allows us now to get more focus from within, and it also allows each of us to spend a little bit more time on certain aspects of the department, which allows more focus. Hopefully we act as catalysts to move the agenda forward to ensure that in the end, with social development, which is extremely important to Canadians, we try to find creative ways to ensure that Canadians are better served.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
As you know, Mr. Martin, we work in cooperation with the provinces in our circumstance, and your neighbour next door would not like us to tell them anything. We try to work cooperatively by supplying the $8 billion on child tax benefit numbers and $2.4 billion in national child benefit. That allows the provinces to perhaps use some of that money--not that money specifically, but money they were putting in--taking into account the social assistance issues, and deal with that money in other programs that help their citizens have better delivery of comprehensive approaches.
So we continue working with them to alleviate poverty. With that, we're also working with the provinces on affordable housing; the homeless; and those with disabilities, in terms of additional moneys for the disabilities I mentioned earlier. Of course, as you know, in the last 10 or 11 years this government has been in office, over three million more Canadians today are working compared to 10 years ago. So that supplies families with the opportunities. And many of the jobs are well-paying jobs.
We take into account another factor. We have a great immigration policy, with 250,000, or thereabouts, new immigrants every year, with children. So on a continual basis we're replenishing sometimes those who are either conventional refugees or others who come into this country as we open up our arms. We try to give them as much as possible to get out of those circumstances, but they're also better off here than where they may have come from.
We certainly have a long way to go in working cooperatively with all provinces and municipalities to ensure that all Canadians get all the tools they need to have better lives, so we can eradicate poverty to the best of our ability.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
On retroactivity, Madam Folco, it's more future because they are delaying using it, compared to going backwards because they didn't receive it. So it's more using it for the future.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
You used to play hockey, right?
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
I was sitting on this committee last year when we were dealing with the SIN, which has to do with more...as Minister Dryden indicated. But I'll just continue emphasizing, as we did when I was asking questions there, that people don't have to give up their SIN unless it is for government-related issues, or if it's a bank in particular--and I don't even know that's a rule for sure. It's important that Canadians don't give out their SIN, even when they're asked for it, because it is private. We don't want it to be utilized for applications for frivolous things.
View Tony Ianno Profile
Lib. (ON)
If I can just comment on that, I'll give you a little public relations for my riding. On the one that's working in our riding, they have 90 children who drop in with the parents. There's an active board, and it's the Montrose community group. It's on Shaw Street. They do wonderful work, and it takes into account several of the not-for-profit organizations in the constituency. They all participate in it and continue feeding into it. It's such a great model that I'm sure people at large, once they learn about it, will want it in their constituencies. It is great work with great skilled educators, and people feel they're part of the community with that service.
I just want people to know it's working extremely well and the money is well spent. That's just from an MP's perspective.
Results: 1 - 13 of 13

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