From what I understand, Mr. MacKinnon considers that most of the people with incomes between $25,000 and $45,000 pay little tax because of all of the measures he mentioned. At this time, several of the measures available are non-refundable tax credits. I would like to point out that most of these people already pay some tax and are probably among those Canadians who could most benefit from fiscal relief. They need it more than those who earn $210,000 a year and who will benefit from a tax cut on top of that.
Furthermore, I invite my colleague to walk around his riding and talk to those who earn less than $45,000. He could check whether they had the impression, during the election campaign, that they would be entitled to the tax cut. I can tell him, from my impression and that of many of my colleagues, that they are having quite a strong reaction. People with incomes between $30,000 and $40,000, who consider themselves to be in the middle class, thought they were going to benefit from a tax cut. They have been extremely surprised, however, since the beginning of the year, to see that their paycheque has not changed.
Honestly, I didn't hear any debates during the election on the fact that the 22% rate would be reduced to 20.5%. Aside from that technical aspect, people understood that if they were in the middle class, they would be entitled to a tax cut. However, that is not the case for most of those who could be defined as belonging to the middle class.
And so I propose that all of those who consider themselves in the middle class be entitled to a tax cut, and that the tax cut for those with incomes of more than $200,000 be abolished. For these reasons, I wish to maintain my amendment.