I just have a quick point of order, Mr. Chair.
Without reading the report, I wonder if Mr. Lawrence would like to comment on the fact that the corresponding reduction in the Canada child benefit is also one of the factors that the C.D. Howe Institute identifies as contributing to a higher effective marginal tax rate.
Of course, I think usually the response that I endorse is that, as families do get gainful employment and are generating their own income, the pride of self-dependence is compensatory for the fact that those benefit levels are reduced.
I don't think it's a position of the Conservative Party to oppose reducing the amount of the child benefit as families have higher incomes. While I take the technical point about effective marginal tax rates, I think it is important to emphasize that the way you get to those high effective marginal tax rates is by having corresponding benefit reductions as the income of a family increases. It's not actually the tax rate per se. It's reducing income benefits that families receive that creates the higher marginal effective tax rate.
I've heard Mr. Lawrence refer a lot to this report, but I haven't heard him talk about that component. I know he's very familiar with the report. I wouldn't mind, seeing as we seem to be here for a while anyway, if he wouldn't mind discussing that element of the report and the calculation on the marginal effective tax rate for lower-income families.