Thank you.
I'd like to go back to Mr. Stapleton and his important work on marginal effective tax rates for the lowest-income people. I had the Library of Parliament do a study on the marginal effective tax rates of disabled people earning minimum wage.
Marginal effective tax rates, for anyone listening who is not familiar with the term, means the amount of money people will lose in taxes and benefit clawbacks on the next dollar they earn. So if an Alberta-based disabled person earning minimum wage, who works 40 hours a week, were to get an extra dollar raise, he or she would lose $1.15. If the person decided to work and earn, let's say, another $100 in a week, he or she would lose $115 in combined benefits, clawbacks, and taxes. In other words, the effective tax rate on the next dollar earned is well over 100%.
I remember the leader of the NDP said he thought it was confiscation if someone would pay a tax rate of over 50%. He was referring to millionaires at that time. But somehow we think it's acceptable that the poorest and most vulnerable people effectively pay a tax rate that is well over 100%.
My question is for you, Mr. Stapleton, because you have been pretty much the leading voice against this injustice. Do you believe the Government of Canada, the federal government, has the jurisdictional right to lead a solution to this problem with other levels of government, given that these effective tax rates are the result of combined policies at multiple levels of government?