Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Jovanovic, I would like to begin by confirming certain figures with you.
Let's talk about the cut to the second tax bracket.
A person whose income is under $45,000 will not benefit in any way from the tax cut. Let's take the Statistics Canada figures for non-economic family members, who are generally single people. There will be absolutely nothing for the first seven deciles, that is to say the 70% of the population with the lowest incomes. The average income of the eighth decile was $52,600 in 2013. So, a few people in this 70% to 80% will benefit from a tax reduction, but all of those below that will get nothing. Are we in agreement up till now? You seem to acquiesce.
The government says that nine million taxpayers will benefit from a tax reduction. According to my calculations, 18 million taxpayers are under that threshold and will not see a tax reduction under this bill. Once again, correct me if I am wrong.
You have probably seen the report of the Parliamentary Budget Officer I requested. This is what he concluded. If we were to reduce the first tax bracket, this would affect 83% of taxpayers. However, the percentage of taxpayers affected by the decrease in Bill C-2 is far lower, since it is approximately 30%.
Have you evaluated the impact of a 1% cut to the first tax bracket rather than a 1.5% reduction of the second bracket, as proposed in Bill C-2?