Evidence of meeting #11 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was income.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Alain Noël  Professor, Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, As an Individual

12:25 p.m.

Liberal

Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS

I certainly agree with you. On the social infrastructure side, you're entirely right that there is a whole element of infrastructure spending that is needed. And when we talk about even stimulative spending, I think there are a lot of studies that indicate that the best stimulative spending you can do is also on social infrastructure. So in terms of what we talk about from the recent budget, the infrastructure spending—i.e., stimulus spending on infrastructure—in a lot of cases doesn't help the lowest-income Canadians. It's the highly skilled workers who will probably benefit more than people who are working part-time.

The EI system, investing in child tax benefits, the GST tax credit, and things like that would be very strong measures that would not only assist those who need help but would also put the money right into the economy, because the people who get the money need it to spend right away. Is that an idea you agree with?

12:25 p.m.

Professor, Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, As an Individual

12:25 p.m.

Liberal

Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS

Is there anything specific you would think the federal government could do, whether it's increasing the child tax benefit, whether it's continuing to work on the WITB, or whether it's an investment in providing money to the provinces for their social infrastructure? Is there one specific thing you'd like to see come out of a federal anti-poverty strategy in Canada?

12:25 p.m.

Professor, Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, As an Individual

Alain Noël

Everything the federal government does for families right now is a result of a series of measures that were taken one after the other. You have the Canada child tax benefit and the national child benefit supplement and the income tax deductions, now that they exist, and of course the money you get for day care, the $100.

12:25 p.m.

Liberal

Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS

Universal child care benefit.

12:25 p.m.

Professor, Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, As an Individual

Alain Noël

The universal child care benefit. To me, that measure doesn't work. It's not redistributed, it doesn't support child care, and it doesn't help women enter the labour market. So that would be an easy one to change.

12:25 p.m.

Liberal

Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS

I think you're right.

12:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

Thank you.

Professor, we want to thank you for taking the time to be here today. That's all the time we have. We're going to go in camera after we have a quick break here, to go through some committee business. But thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be here today. Thanks.

We'll just take two seconds and then we'll reconvene.

[Proceedings continue in camera]