I would be delighted, and I say this very seriously, if this committee recommended to the Minister of Finance a general operating principle that, going forward, all programs must be targeted, not universal. I'm excepting health care itself because it's been around for 70 years and you can't take back what's there. We all support it, but every other social program should be targeted, not universal.
Quebec showed this with the day care. It's giving free day care, or massively subsidized day care, to a husband and wife making a quarter of a million dollars each. It just does not make sense and it's not sustainable. I'm referencing pharmacare but it applies to all of our programs. We shouldn't be giving electric vehicle subsidies to a person making $150,000 a year and not at least make that person declare it on their income as taxable. Why are we giving free money to high-income people?
A good start would be to say that all programs must be targeted, and revenues received as “grants” for various benefits should be taxable.