Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet speaks with reporters outside caucus, Wednesday, September 25, 2024 in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The Liberals appear to be rejecting the Bloc Québécois’s key demand to endorse a bill that would boost federal benefits for seniors aged 65 to 74, saying the legislation does not reflect the reality of Canadian seniors.
The comments from the federal Minister of Seniors also included strong criticism of the Bloc, adding a new source of political instability to the minority Parliament.
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet announced last week that unless a Bloc bill on seniors benefits and another bill related to supply management that is currently before the Senate are passed into law by Oct. 29, his party will be prepared to vote in favour of any non-confidence motion and trigger a federal election before the end of the year.
Using a day set aside for the opposition, Mr. Blanchet moved a motion Tuesday that calls on the government “to take the necessary steps” to ensure that a royal recommendation is granted as soon as possible to Bill C-319, a Bloc bill that would boost seniors benefits by 10 per cent for seniors aged 65 to 74.
A private member’s bill, such as C-319, that involves spending tax dollars cannot be passed into law without a royal recommendation from the government.
Mr. Blanchet repeated that warning Tuesday morning, saying that while an election in the short term is not his preference, the Bloc has the funds, policies and candidates in place.
“We are ready,” he said.
Steven MacKinnon, the federal Minister of Seniors, responded later in the day by lashing out at the Bloc on the floor of the House of Commons, saying the bill fails to recognize that seniors face greater pressures as they age.
“Bill C-319 does not reflect the reality faced by Canadian seniors,” he said, while not stating definitely how the Liberals will vote on the Bloc motion Wednesday. While he said the government is open to discussions, he had strong words for the Bloc.
“The Bloc Québécois, they’re separatists,” he said. “They want an election ASAP. Why? To usher in a Conservative government that, according to them, would bring in the winning conditions for their sovereignty project.”
He then said an independent Quebec would put the pensions of Quebec seniors at risk.
“They don’t want to admit to Quebec seniors that their sovereignty project and their small opportunistic plot would, in fact, make Quebec seniors suffer,” he said.
The minister’s comments came shortly after Bloc MPs voted with the Liberals and the NDP to defeat a Conservative non-confidence motion, the second such vote since House sittings resumed last month.
Bloc MPs appeared to be taken aback as they responded to Mr. MacKinnon’s speech.
“I’ve never heard anything like it. It’s concerning,” said Bloc MP Louise Chabot, who described the minister’s speech as being full of lies and partisanship.
The new public tension between the Liberals and Bloc adds further uncertainty as to how long Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government will survive.
The NDP announced last month that it was withdrawing from a supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals, meaning its future support for the Liberals on confidence votes was no longer guaranteed.
The next federal election is scheduled for the fall of 2025, but could take place any time before then if the Liberals are defeated on a confidence vote in Parliament.
The NDP said they will support the Bloc motion, which is not a confidence motion. Conservative MPs did not announce a clear position but their speeches suggested they will likely vote in favour. The Conservatives and NDP supported the Bloc bill at second reading last year, where it was opposed by Liberal MPs.
The Trudeau government boosted benefits for seniors aged 75 and up in 2022, saying it worked out to more than $766 in new annual support for full pensioners. It also said the cost of that benefit will be $12-billion over five years and $3-billion a year thereafter.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux has said adding ages 65 to 74 to that benefit would cost $16-billion over five years, or more than $3.5-billion a year once fully implemented.
The Bloc’s decision to prioritize the issue has prompted significant debate over the policy merits of boosting benefits to younger seniors. Some economists have questioned the move, saying it runs contrary to the Liberal government’s stated objective of helping younger Canadians.
Paul Kershaw, a policy professor at UBC and founder of Generation Squeeze, a group that advocates for generational fairness, has said that seniors benefits are already the largest and fastest growing part of the federal budget.
“Bottom line, the Bloc motion could cause the greatest setback for generational fairness in federal spending that we will have seen in many years,” he said in an e-mail Tuesday.
Rudy Buttignol, president of CARP, a seniors-advocacy organization, said in an interview that many seniors face genuine cost-of-living pressures and addressing their issues should not be viewed as coming at the expense of action for younger Canadians.
Mr. Buttignol said CARP has long called for the 2022 change to include seniors of all ages. He said he would welcome a debate over the details of how best to implement such an increase, but bemoaned the tone of the current discussion.
“Right now, it’s not being based on facts. It’s really painting a whole generation as: ‘Hey, the reason you’re out of luck is these boomers are hogging all the resources,’” he said.
Conservative MP Gérard Deltell criticized the Liberals’ 2022 changes, which he said created two groups of seniors.
“Why create one class of seniors who have more than another class of seniors?” he asked. “Only Liberals could think of that. How sad to see the impact it has generated.”
During the debate, Liberal MPs frequently focused their criticism on the Conservatives, pointing out that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government announced plans to raise the eligibility age for OAS and GIS to 67, from 65, a change the Trudeau government reversed before it took effect.
NDP MPs said they will be supporting the Bloc’s bill, but said more needs to be done for seniors.