OABF member Balkar Bajwa, 74, of Brampton, moved to Canada from India eight years ago, agrees.
“Waiting 10 years is much too long to wait to get old-age benefits,” says Bajwa, who lives with his son and works part-time as a translator.
The Green Party of Canada says no senior in Canada should suffer in poverty.
“In our view, this bill is a positive initiative and reasonable step to reduce poverty in seniors,” argues Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.
Critics insist Dhalla’s effort amounts to little more than political posturing, charging that her bill has no hope of seeing the light of day.
Many don’t believe seniors who emigrate to Canada and have never worked or contributed to Canada’s tax system should be entitled to claim the benefit after three years of residency.
“People have been advocating for this for many years before I even came to parliament,” says Dhalla.
“I think, as a country, we are a symbol of hope and (this country is) built on hopes and aspirations of Canadians.
“I’m a daughter of immigrant parents,” she adds. “As Canadians, we have a responsibility to anyone vulnerable. No senior should have to choose between filling up their fridge, buying prescriptions or filling up their gas tanks.”
MISINFORMATION
Citing the Library of Parliament, Dhalla says 32,000 immigrant seniors would benefit from the bill and that would translate into $300 to $400 million in costs.
“There’s been a lot of misinformation about the bill. If a senior has lived in Canada for 40 years, they would receive $516.96 a month for old-age security benefits.
“If a senior has only lived in Canada for three years, they would only receive $38.77 a month (through Old Age Security pension),” Dhalla explains.
“It’s an issue of fairness and equalization. The $38.77 a month would help reduce poverty. If these immigrant seniors (who have been here for three years) receive old-age benefits, then they also would be eligible for Guaranteed Income Supplements of $650 a month if they are eligible as low-income earners,” Dhalla says.
A significant proportion of recent immigrant seniors may already be eligible for OAS benefits after one year of residency due to a social security agreement that is in force between Canada and 50 other countries.
However, critics charge that since low-income immigrant seniors with three years residency would qualify for GIS, as well old-age benefits, the cost of the initiative would jump from $300 million to at least $700 million.
Susan Eng, vice-president of CARP, says Bill C-428 is “hugely problematic” and is calling on Dhalla to withdraw the proposal.
“Income disparity is certainly something that is front and centre as part of our mandate, but people are becoming poisoned because it’s a bad proposal, it’s been badly executed, it’s not prepared or debated properly and it hasn’t dealt with the issue,” Eng says.
“Because of the lack of explanation and lack of preparing the audience to hear about this bill, it has invoked a significant negative backlash. We’ve gotten lots of e-mails from the public and people are outraged.
