Yes, certainly.
I really think that particularly when we're investing in children we're investing in Canada's future. There has been some really good research done in recent years, basically demonstrating that by allowing child poverty to persist we're actually creating more social costs in the long run for society.
All of the research indicates that children living in poverty do less well in school, for example. There is lower educational attainment. Therefore, after they leave school, they earn lower incomes as adults, and that's a direct loss to government down the road in terms of tax revenue.
There are also extra costs from child poverty for the health care system, because their houses may not be as safe and kids end up in hospital more, for example, as do adults who grew up in poverty. There is also more involvement with the criminal justice system, and we all know how expensive incarcerating people can be. And then, while they're incarcerated, they're not paying any taxes either.
That's very much why I think we need to use the language of investment when talking about things like improvements to child tax benefits such as those being recommended this morning. It's going to benefit all of us in society in the long term.