Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for coming today.
I want to start by hopefully correcting the record. I'm not sure if I heard Mr. Cousineau properly, but it sounded as if he said that the CST increase would not impact literacy funding. Obviously the CST does impact funding for provincial education, post-secondary education, and in fact literacy funding to the provinces. So I believe that was incorrect, if I heard it right.
Right now I want to move to disability issues specifically, and Mr. Hinton and Ms. Hicks. I'd say that yesterday's budget was a very good budget for Canadians dealing with disabilities. We have the creation of the Canadian Mental Health Commission; $30 million in the Rick Hansen Man in Motion Foundation to help people living with spinal cord injuries; and the creation of the enabling accessibility fund, with $45 million over three years to improve accessibility for people living with limited physical ability.
We have $140 million over the next two years to establish the new registered disability savings plan. As a parent of an 11-year-old child with autism, I find one of the considerations we deal with is what life is going to be like for Jaden when he's an adult and we're gone. This gives parents and grandparents the opportunity to save for the future increased independence for those dealing with disability issues.
One of the things that have been talked about a lot, and quite favourably, is the working income tax benefit. One thing that I note hasn't been talked about so much with regard to that is the working income tax benefit disability supplement, which is an additional supplement provided for low-income working Canadians with disabilities who generally face greater barriers to workforce participation.
The budget has only been out for 24 hours. Have you had a chance to read it? I'd be curious to know your thoughts on it.