Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to all of you today. I'll try to get through as many as I can.
I might first say to our people here on behalf of the private funeral owners, quite frankly, I couldn't agree with you more. Government regulation should not create a competitive imbalance. It shouldn't happen. And if they're there for particular reasons, obviously I think we have to try to find some solutions around that. I thank you for your concerns.
I'll just try to go around as much as I can.
Mr. Mains, I think your request from 30% to 40% on the accelerated cost is a move forward and I think it's reasonable. If it were to go to 100%, yes, we would run into perhaps an inflationary situation with the equipment. We thank you for that. That's a suggestion, obviously, that the committee can take under advisement.
I will slip over now to Ms. Craig. I took a look at your recommendations here, and it's pretty significant from a cost point of view--enhancing the national child benefit, the basic income program, restoring the Canada social transfer. Maybe I'll just make a brief comment on it and then ask you for a costing thought.
Actually, with regard to the national child care supplement in budget 2008-09 we actually contributed $5.6 billion, which is three times more than any previous government had ever committed to child care. As well, we increased the budget for the child tax benefit by $436 for a low-income family. We added the disability tax credit. We brought in the disability savings plan. They were all helpful.
I know it's never enough, because we obviously have a situation where there are always communities and families in need, but at some particular point we do have to find a balance on that.
What you're suggesting now is significantly costly. Do you have any particular costing assessments? When you say families should be raised by another $5,200, what would that cost?