Kelly McParland, Full Comment Canadian politics

There's been some web traffic on a Liberal proposal to allow elderly immigrants to qualify for the Canada Pension Plan after just three years in the country. It's usually accompanied by a video of Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla introducing the proposal last spring, seconded by Bob Rae. People, especially pensioners, are upset that immigrants should get access so quickly, having never paid into the system like the rest of us.

The only problem with the issue is that there's nothing to it. Dhalla did introduce a private member's bill, Bill C-428, but it relates only to the  Old Age Security program, and does not change any of the rules regarding access to the Canada Pension Plan.

OAS is part of the income program for elderly Canadians, and provides a maximum of about $500 a month to seniors who have lived in Canada for at least 10 years. Dhalla's bill would reduce the residency period to three years for some seniors. Canada currently has reciprocal agreements with more than 50 countries, in which Canada waives the residency requirement, as long as they waive it for us. So if you spent 10 years in Australia, Iceland or Barbados before moving to Canada, it counts as living in Canada for social security benefits.  They do the same for us.

Dhalla's bill would extend the same treatment to countries that don't have a reciprocal agreement with Ottawa, including China, India and a number of Caribbean and African countries. That might seem bit generous, but  the benefits wouldn't be equal to those provided to other OAS recipients. An elderly immigrant who'd been here for the minimum three years would get about $38 a month, meaning you'd have to save up for almost three months to afford a 30-day pass on the Toronto subway system. Not exactly the lap of luxury.

Even at that modest rate, it's not likely the Bill will see daylight. It's a private member's bill, which means it has about as much chance of becoming law as Gilles Duceppe does of becoming Prime Minister. And Dhalla's office says it is number 128 on the list of private members' bills up for consideration, which means your 5-year-old will be in a nursing home before Parliament is likely to get around to it.

At most, the Bill acts as a signal of legislation the Liberals might favour if they were to form a government. At $450 a year per senior, it would add up to about the same as the Conservative Fitness Tax Credit, which lets parents claim up to $500 a year for sticking their kids in organized sports programs.

Dhalla's office also says the Bill was introduced previously by MP Colleen Baumier, who retired from office in 2008 after 15 years in Ottawa. For some strange reason, Dhalla attracts more attention than Baumier. Go figure.