As you know, seniors across Canada rely on the GIS to supplement their income. As GIS is assessed on income, seniors who receive their benefit must file income taxes on time to avoid having their benefit cut-off. The GIS cut-off generally takes place in July for seniors who have not filed their income taxes.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deadline for filling taxes has been extended to June 1, 2020 for all Canadians. When the question of how this extension will pertain to seniors who receive GIS, I was informed that the ministry has committed to ensuring that no one’s GIS will be interrupted and that mechanisms to make that happen are being worked on.
If the two-time former central bank governor had hopes that would be the beginning of a trend, however, the past three months would have made short work of any such unbridled — or even bridled — optimism.
Leaving aside the supply bills required to authorize pre-approved spending, since the House of Commons reopened for business on Sept. 16, the only government-initiated legislation to make it through a third reading vote was its bid to rejig the rules for recognizing the citizenship of the children of Canadians born abroad, which was introduced in response to a 2023 Ontario court ruling that found the current law to be unconstitutional with a court-imposed deadline of Nov. 21 to be in place before the offending sections would be automatically declared null and void.
Even that, it’s worth noting, wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the New Democrats — particularly B.C. MP Jenny Kwan, who, despite her party’s lack of official status, was nevertheless able to work with the government to reverse a series of changes made at committee by the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois, which cleared the way for the bill to proceed to a third reading vote — and, ultimately, through the Senate. It was signed into law on Nov. 20, just one day before the existing law was set to expire, although by that point, the court had extended the deadline to Jan. 20, 2026, to allow for an orderly transition.

