Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister.
I like the fact that everyone is talking about our Canada Child Benefit proposal. As Mr. Deltell mentioned, the non-indexation of the program was an oversight. I think that is obvious. The government did not mention indexation until we saw the results of the non-indexation in the report of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
What is also clear is that by 2020, if the benefit is not indexed, we will find ourselves in a situation that will not be very different to the one that would have prevailed had the program not been modified.
If this had not been an oversight on the part of the government, would it have studied the possibility of changing the level of the benefit to allow indexation, rather than letting the amount of the benefit deteriorate over four years, which would represent a loss of buying power for Canadian families?