Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank the committee for their invitation to speak today concerning the 2023 federal budget. My presentation today will review only two of the 24 chapters in our own “Alternative Federal Budget 2023”, which we released about a month ago. I'll focus my comments today on some proposed measures on income security and taxation from this year's alternative budget.
First of all, it is worth reflecting on the incredible poverty impacts of federal supports during the pandemic. The federal poverty reduction strategy plan targeted reductions in poverty of 50% between 2015 and 2030. Poverty rates stood at 14.5% in 2015, but they actually fell to 6.4% in 2020, a reduction of 56%, besting the long-term target of the PRSP a decade early. What this points to is that the federal poverty reduction goals are not overly ambitious but were, in fact, already achieved two years ago. Unfortunately, the 2020 poverty data will be a blip, as rates will rise again in 2021 due to the expiry of the Canada emergency response benefit and enhanced employment insurance, among other one-time supports.
We need to build on these lessons of pandemic supports to create sustainable reductions in poverty in Canada. Our alternative budget envisages these supports across what we're calling four pillars of income security in Canada.
The first pillar is for families with children. The Canada child benefit already creates much of this pillar, but it can be improved. This year, we propose a supplement to the CCB called the end poverty supplement. It provides additional supports for families with children in particularly deep poverty, which will amount to up to $8,500 more for the first child.
The second pillar is for seniors. It is already in place via the old age security, the guaranteed income supplement and the Canada pension plan. Although we propose lowering the age of eligibility for the GIS to 60, poverty rates remain particularly high for Canadians ages 60 to 64 before they gain access to seniors programs at age 65.
The third pillar is a new program that we're calling the Canada livable income. It would be a universal benefit for Canadians of working age without children, and it fills an important gap in our present system for working-age Canadians. The Canada workers benefit is meant to fill this gap to some degree, but it does so poorly, as it requires employment income and even then remains inadequate. One of the primary reasons Canadians live in poverty is that they don't have employment income, so the CWB design is a flawed one. Our proposed Canada livable income would provide $5,000 for individuals or $7,000 for couples who live in particularly deep poverty.
The fourth pillar would be the creation of a Canada disability benefit. While this would be a new pillar of income security, it certainly is already under consideration by the federal government. Our alternative budget lays out specific levels and phase-out criteria for such a benefit, and it proposes implementation criteria over a three-year time frame.
Speaking of income security, we would also propose a rapid support guarantee. The goal here would be for the CRA to provide income supports within a month of Canadians' becoming eligible. This would be instead of the present situation where Canadians have to wait until tax time or up to a year later to receive important income supports when their circumstances change. The CERB illustrated that supporting Canadians could happen much faster than we've been traditionally used to.
Our alternative budget does not shy away from the revenue side. We do propose higher corporate income taxes in Canada, but not just on the banking sector, which was achieved in budget 2022. Corporate Canada has been capturing record amounts of our economy as profits during this inflationary period. Plenty of focus recently has been on grocery store profits, but this is actually a small part of a much larger picture. The excess profits we've seen since the end of 2020 have really been driven by oil and gas extraction and refining, the mining sector, real estate industries and banking. Our alternative budget examines the revenue from higher general corporate income tax rates. However, we also examine the revenue from changes like a minimum tax on book profits, capping the deductibility of executive pay, limiting the dividend tax credit to actual taxes paid and many other suggestions.
What I have discussed here today only briefly outlines the contents of two chapters. I encourage members to examine those chapters and the 22 other chapters in our alternative budget, which include detailed policy proposals for child care, long-term care, climate change, infrastructure and more.
Thank you very much. I look forward to your questions.