Liberals grabbing money back from seniors

By: Daniel Blaikie - Elmwood-Transcona MP Constituency Report Posted: 7:05 AM CST Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/11/2021 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A lot of Canadian seniors are at risk of losing their homes because the Trudeau Liberals are kicking them off, or drastically reducing, the guaranteed income supplement.

The GIS is a benefit for Canada’s poorest seniors; a benefit that does not even pay enough to keep people above the poverty line.

The GIS allows seniors to top up their benefit with some employment income. When those seniors lost their employment because of the pandemic, they were told to apply for CERB.

They were not told that the government would treat their pandemic benefits as an advance on next year’s GIS. Instead, they were told no one should fear applying and believed the Prime Minister when he campaigned on a promise to have everyone’s back until the pandemic is over.

Chris is a 65 yearold who lost all his part-time work as a musician when the pandemic struck. When he got a little bump in income from the pandemic benefits, he put the extra money toward overdue bills, dental work and car repairs.

After months of being off the pandemic benefits, he was informed that his GIS would be reduced by almost $500 a month, leaving him without enough money to pay the rent.

Janet is 79 years old. She has a small business helping students find post-secondary placements. It makes a little money to help supplement her GIS but not enough to disqualify her from the program.

When COVID-19 first struck, it took Janet several months to adapt her business to work remotely. In the meantime, she collected CERB. As result, her GIS is now being cut by about $300 a month, making her already frugal budget virtually impossible to live on.

This is wrong. And it doesn’t need to happen. The government can simply decide to not count pandemic benefits in the calculation of GIS eligibility. The money for GIS payments is already in the budget.

Shamefully, the Liberals have not even asked for any money back from businesses that received the wage subsidy while booking tidy profits.

Montreal-based trucking firm TFI International saw its net income increase by double digits and increased dividend payments while taking almost $75 million in wage subsidy payments.

The Royal Ottawa Golf Club saw a record operating surplus of $825,000 after taking a little over $1 million in wage subsidy funds. As a result, it is planning to repave its parking lot three years ahead of schedule.

If the Liberals really want to make some pandemic money back, this is the place they should be looking rather than preying on vulnerable seniors.

As I write, Parliament has yet to resume. You can rest assured that putting an end to this assault on seniors will be a top priority for me and the rest of the NDP team in Ottawa.