Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, this bill is oversold. I certainly support it. However, it is called “Protecting Canada’s Seniors Act” and it adds one very small consideration at sentencing.
Does the member not agree with me that we need a fuller effort that actually draws attention to, for instance, the rights of seniors once they are in long-term care facilities, in care where they are unable to protect themselves from some senior abuse which is institutional?
Ms. Laurin Liu: Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more with my colleague.
It is telling that on the very same day the government proposed this bill, I tabled my private member’s bill in the House that would automatically enrol every senior who qualified for the guaranteed income supplement into this program.
We see very different approaches from the government side and from the NDP. Although we support the bill, we believe that things like the guaranteed income supplement, or things that really attack poverty among seniors are the solutions that we need to attack this problem at its roots.
We can talk about long-term care or we can talk about the price of prescription medicine. There are so many things we need to do to help seniors. We invite the government to look at those things.