Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kelly, I'm sorry you're not feeling well. I hope to hear that you're on the mend.
I don't know if you were watching the meeting before this. We had representatives here from food banks, and we got some very disturbing testimony. Mr. Hetherington from Daily Bread said that we are in a crisis. We heard statistics that first-time users of food banks are at an all-time high. Before the pandemic, there would be about 65,000 food bank customers a month. Now it's 270,000 people a month in Toronto alone. They said many of their clients pay 100% of their income for housing. One of the witnesses said that 5% of Mississauga uses food banks. Both representatives from each of the food banks said that the grocery rebate will not help. Mr. Hetherington from Daily Bread said, “What's on the ground should be terrifying.” Another thing that they said was not before the pandemic was that 30% of food bank users are employed workers.
The reason I'm going through this with you is that I noted under “Tax and Regulatory Costs” in your 2023 submission, you said the following: “Based on a recent survey of our members, savings generated from a reduction in tax burden would benefit employees”, in that 59% of businesses would increase wages and benefits, and 32% said that they would “mitigate the need to increase prices”.
Many members of this committee, not in our party, have made the argument as recently as today that they can't see why tax reductions would help workers. Can you explain it to them?