A debate over how Ottawa chooses to divide its spending among age cohorts is ramping up as the Bloc Québécois pushes the Liberal minority government to boost Old Age Security (OAS) payments.
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet put forward a motion Tuesday demanding that the government move forward with legislation that would hike OAS payouts for seniors between the ages of 65 and 74.
The Bloc has said it will only continue supporting the Liberal government on future non-confidence votes if it gets an OAS hike before the end of this month. It also wants stronger trade protections for supply-managed farm sectors.
Benefits for the elderly, including OAS and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) for low-income seniors, already constitute the largest and fastest-growing part of the federal budget.
The cost of elderly benefits is projected to rise from $80 billion this year to $100 billion annually by 2028-29 — a figure that doesn’t take into account this proposed 10 per cent hike.
And the federal government already spends more on elderly benefits than on other major programs that disproportionately benefit younger people — such as Employment Insurance (EI) ($26.6 billion), the Canada Child Benefit ($28.1 billion) and the national child care program ($6.6 billion).
The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has said the Bloc’s proposed OAS increase would cost $16 billion over the next five years — spending that would add to a national debt that is now over $1.2 trillion. The cost of financing all that debt comes to about $54 billion this year.
“We have to look at the intergenerational impacts of something like that. It’s a lot of money … it’s not insignificant, so we have to look at this very carefully,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told reporters Tuesday.
“Are seniors the people in society who need it the most right now? We see how young people are having difficulty at the moment. But it’s a discussion that must take place,” he added in French.
The Liberal government hasn’t said how it will vote on today’s motion. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet ministers have been instead touting the government’s fledgling dental care and forthcoming pharmacare programs as proof they are committed to helping seniors.
Statistics Canada data from 2019 shows people 65 and older already make up one of the wealthiest age cohorts in the country, with a median net worth of $543,200, compared to $234,400 for people aged 35 to 44.
The Liberal government’s last budget, titled, “Fairness for every generation,” was crafted to appeal to millennial and generation Z voters who are feeling left behind as home prices continue to march higher. Rising home prices are good news for home-owning seniors but a drag on the finances of younger households.
The centrepiece of that budget was a housing initiative that will cost the treasury just a fraction of what will be spent annually on OAS or GIS.
Blanchet said seniors deserve “a significant increase to their purchasing power because they literally built Quebec and the prosperity we all have and enjoy today.”
He said the young people in his life are doing well.
“They have a standard of living that we could never have envisioned and I’m very happy about that,” he said in French during debate on his motion Tuesday.
“And I think those who built this world for them need to be adequately treated for having done that.”
Blanchet said the Liberal government’s move to hike OAS payouts for people 75 and older in 2022 led to a form of “discrimination” because younger eligible seniors get less.
Part of the Bloc’s voting base is elderly people in small population centres outside of Montreal and Quebec City.
“This is an opportunity to get some significant gains for seniors,” Blanchet said. “If the government doesn’t accept our request, they don’t want to be helpful to millions of Canadians and Quebecers.”
Generation Squeeze, an advocacy group for young people, has said that if the Bloc gets its way, “younger Canadians will be on the hook to pay even more taxes for boomers’ OAS benefits.”
That’s unfair because younger people are already grappling with higher housing costs, larger student debts and future costs associated with climate-related natural disasters, the group said.
“Rather than be held hostage by the Bloc, Ottawa should help economically insecure retirees by modernizing OAS to better target benefits. This would ask relatively affluent boomers to contribute more to the income needs of its generation, rather than punt expenses to their offspring,” Paul Kershaw, the group’s founder, said in a recent op-ed.
For the Bloc’s pension legislation to become law, the Liberal government would have to grant a “royal recommendation” because a private member’s bill can’t force Ottawa to spend more money without cabinet approval.
The Bloc’s motion Tuesday is an attempt to force the government to deliver that recommendation so that the pension legislation can sail through Parliament.