Issue Finance Minister Bill Morneau defends the Liberals’ record on seniors at CARP’s Town Hall
Ahead of the federal election, the finance minister visits CARP Town Hall and defends the Liberals’ record on seniors
WITH A federal election looming this fall, the major parties are tuning up their platforms, honing their messages and hitting the road in order to get their message out in front of the voters.
All parties are strategizing on how to win the major constituencies, realizing that capturing a massive bloc of voters is the surest path to victory. And with one of these largest demos being older Canadians, it’s a valuable prize, well worth fighting for.
That’s because “older Canadians like to make their voices heard,” says Laura Tamblyn Watts, Chief Public Policy Officer at CARP, a group that lobbies on behalf of older Canadians, promoting a new vision for aging. Watts was referring to a CARP poll that 98 per cent of respondents said they voted in the last federal election and planned to do so again in this year’s election.
The 2015 election was a case study of how leveraging the older voting bloc paid huge dividends. During that campaign, the Liberals developed a seniors strategy (including reversing the eligibility of Old Age Security back to 65, boosting the Guaranteed Income Supplement, enhancing the Canada Pension Plan and extending compassionate leave for caregivers) that successfully captured the interest of senior voters.
Leader Justin Trudeau delivered these promises to a CARP Town Hall, a month before the election. His ability to convey the message that his party was serious about seniors issues meant that, for the first time in a decade, the Liberals managed tow rest the older vote away from the Conservatives and rode that wave all the way to a majority government.
Hoping to catch lightning in a bottle a second time around, the Liberals once again came calling on CARP to make an early pitch for the support of older Canadians.
In April, Finance Minister Bill Morneau visited CARP’s national headquarters in Toronto to take part in a Town Hall where he answered questions on government policy and defended the Liberals’ record on seniors. Morneau likely used the opportunity to undo the damage inflicted on the party by the SNC-Lavalin affair, where allegations of influence peddling by unelected officials had sunk the government to second place in the polls.
In introducing the finance minister, Tamblyn Watts noted that CARP
had recently launched its national seniors platform (The FACES of Canadian Seniors) “to make very clear to all elected officials and all parties running the key issues that older adults are advocating for. Our goal, of course, is to make Canada the very best place to age.”
Morneau was fresh off delivering his fourth budget in March, an election-minded document that contained tasty morsels aimed to please key constituencies, especially older Canadians.Itwasnocoincidencethat many of Budget 2019’s senior friendly announcementswerebread-and-butter CARP advocacy issues, including:
Creation of the Canadian Drug Agency with a goal of implementing a national pharmacare plan somewhere down the road.
Allowing GIS recipients to earn $1,500 more before their benefit is clawed back.
$50 billion for a National Dementia Strategy.
Measures to protect pensioners of companies that go bankrupt.
Automatic enrolment for Canadians over the age of 70 who have not applied for the Canada Pension Plan.
To Morneau’s credit, he didn’t turn the Town Hall into a PR event hyping the budget. And he actually provided insightful answers to difficult questions posed by host Libby Znaimer as well as those in the audience – most unusual for a politician at his level.
In what turned into a wide-ranging back-and-forth between the minister and audience, here are the key issues Morneau addressed.
Mandatory RRIF Withdrawals Morneau was asked whether his government would consider changing current policy that forces Canadians to begin withdrawing from the RRIFs at age 71, even if they don’t need it. This policy forces retirees to unnecessarily deplete their capital that decreases future returns.
The minister responded that the issue was on the radar for the government but that any changes to the existing policy would have “a significant cost” on revenue and cautioned CARP members not to expect any action soon.
Pension Protection In the wake of the Sears bankruptcy debacle, which saw pensioners lose out on benefits while company executives got paid, Morneau was asked whether there’s political will to strengthen policies to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Theministerrespondedthattherecent budget included measures that would prevent executives from taking money out while the bankrupt company was being restructured. However, he noted that government is wary that legislation on this issue could have a negative affect – “if we create more onerous regulations, then it might actually decrease the likelihood that these [defined benefit pension plans] continue to exist.”
Caregiver Support With more than eight million Canadians caring for a family member or loved one, CARP asked Morneau if the government will make investments in home care and increased financial and respite support for informal caregivers.
The minister said that the recent federal-provincial health-care agreement included $6 billion for home care. But Morneau agreed that more could be done, such as CARP’s call for a refundable tax credit for caregivers. “We’re constantly looking at the tax code to make sure it addresses the challenges that are facing people.”
National Drug Plan ManyCanadians,especiallythosebetween the ages of 50 and 64, are not covered by either provincial or private drug plans. As a result, some simply can’t afford life-saving medication and often forgo filling their prescriptions. CARP asked the minister whether funding a national drug plan is in the cards.
Morneau said that the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare has presented its report to the government but that there are two key issues which need to be resolved – the high price of pharmaceuticals in Canada and access – before a plan like this is enacted. “There’s no simple ‘turn-the-switch’ solution,” Morneau said. “But we’re committed to getting to where every Canadian has access to the pharmaceutical coverage they need.”