MOVING THE GOALPOSTS
Many of the seniors the Liberals say they have lifted out of poverty only moved above the poverty line when the measurement was changed
OTTAWA — Internal government documents say that many of the 57,000 seniors the Liberals say they have helped lift out of poverty only moved above the poverty line when the government changed the measure.
Last August, the federal government adopted, for the first time, an official poverty line based on the income needed to afford a basket of household necessities. Previously, Canada’s main measure of poverty was the “low-income cut-off,” a different calculation based on how much a person or household spends on necessities relative to others.
A late-November briefing note for Seniors Minister Filomena Tassi said federal boosts to seniors’ benefits appeared to be highly effective “because there was a concentration of seniors with incomes that placed them just above” the low-income threshold, but below the new poverty line.
When the Liberals increased the guaranteed income supplement (GIS) given to low-income seniors, elderly Canadians in that band were no longer deemed to be in poverty.
On Thursday, Tassi said the additional money is making a material difference in the lives of those 57,000 seniors. As for the number itself, Tassi said “that’s what the statistic is.”
“That GIS increase helped 900,000 seniors, put more money in their pockets and the number is that 57,000 were raised out of poverty. Those are the stats and that’s the reality,” she said at a press conference called to draw attention to the government’s efforts.
The same briefing note, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press under the accessto-information law, also outlined how life could be unaffordable in most of the country under the recently adopted poverty line for low-income seniors reliant on government benefits.
Combined, old-age security payments and the guaranteed income supplement top out around $18,000 a year for single people, which federal officials calculated would push a senior with no income above the national poverty line in just five of the 50 regions into which the government divides the country.
The figure rose to 20 of 50 regions when looking at what benefits can do for a couple with no other income.
Conservative seniors critic Alice Wong said in a statement that the Liberals were “trying to mislead Canadians” about their record in government by “moving the goalposts when it comes to seniors’ poverty.”
The Liberals and Conservatives each paint themselves as the party of choice for seniors. Elections Canada research from the 2015 election showed those over age 65 saw the highest turnout rate at the polls of any age group, continuing a trend witnessed in previous votes.