Legislative Assembly

daud the amount back to April 1st as promised and there was no means test. Nobody was asked to divulge the amount of money that they had in the bank, or whether they had property, or whether they had other income from friends or relatives. But what do we find? We find, and I must state first that our action was based on sur- veys that were made by this Senate Committee of aging and if I may read this from the Guardian; “Massive reforms and attitudes and assistance involving Canad- ian Senior Citizens are recommended by the Senate Committee on Aging. Sweeping recommendations effecting all levels of Government, employees, and individuals includ- ed a suggestion that all Canadians at sixty-five receive a guaranteed minimum income as a matter of right. For a guaranteed annual income at sixty-five, the committee suggested the establishment of a competent body to study income needs and develop the social acceptable minimum. In the meantime, it recommended that single persons getting minimum income of $1,260.00, and married couples, $2,220.00 the Federal Government will fill the gap between the existing incomes and the proposed mini- mum.” It goes on further that there would be no means test. This was what was rcommended. It avoids the indignity and the needs to tests to which we would not like to see several hundred thousand retired people subjected. And further, it pro- vides the most effective means we have discovered in correcting the present inequity in our treatment of the already retired and those about to retire. The report further adds any suggestion that these older people, when the seventy-five dollars is not sufficient, should be expected to depend for supplementation on public assistance after a means test is utterly unacceptable. Then, we have the Canadian Welfare Council who also put recommendations in, and they say the standard of living should be arrived at on a rational budgeting basis, and the incomes of the elderly should be augmented to these levels to assistance where necessary. The proposed minimum annual budget totals are $1,668.00 which is $139.00 per month for a single person and $2,686.00 for a married couple or $112.00 each. Lo and behold the Federal Gov- ernment eventually came across with $30.00 a month, about half of what was recom- mended by these experts, and it was to be given on a means test. But the means test, they changed the word to needs test, I could never understand the difference. But at the heading of this application form, they were told not to include any of the following, Old Age Security Pension and any similar payments. Social Assistance payments, from the Municipality, Provincial or Federal, War Veteran's allowance and so on, so that they didn’t expect these amounts coming from the Province to be included in this statement. But the Minister of Welfare, and I am sorry that I have to bring this up during his absence, said in his report to the newspaper in early February, “Nobody will be eligible for the full supplementary payment from Ottawa in addition to the $25.00 supplement payment from this Province.” That means that those who prove the need at Ottawa have been cut off by the Province. In the next move that was made, a means test form was sent out, and it was promised in their platform that there would be no means test, and I don’t know whether the termin- ology you would use for this paper because it calls for the name, address, birthdate. whether you are married or single, and then it goes on to resources, cash on hand and in the bank, other stocks and bonds, and real property, and they wanted to know your monthly income. They wanted to know what pensions you were getting, your annutities, your retirement income benefits, earnings from employment, net profit of business, dividends and interest, rents, and property and other income which might come from your friends and relatives. It goes on further to question your monthly expenses, such as room and board, and this is the very thing, Mr. Speaker, that was promised would never be done. There would be no means test on the Old Age Security Assistance from this Province, and so we have got to the point now where the people who need some extra supplementary assistance are getting $30.00 from the Federal Treasury, and what happns in the Province here? Those who don’t get the $30.00, which are those people who don’t need any supplementary money, are going to be given $25.00 each to live up to this promise. So the rich are being helped by the Province, the Provincial Treasury, and the poor are going to be helped by the Federal Treasury. and this was never the understanding of elderly people in this Province. When the $25.00 was promised, it was to be given from Ottawa, and if we had lived up to the recommendations of the Senate Committee on Aging, and of the Canadian Welfare Association, they would have been getting the full amount, the hundred and thirty some dollars which the experts claimed they require to exist under present day conditions. 80 this form was sent out, with no letter, no explana- tion, and the people were coming to Members in this Government and I know from the Government side in asking what we will do with it, and the Minister I’m ques-

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