The challenge of marginal effective tax rates are implicit in any income support program.
I think the question that policy-makers have to confront is twofold. First, is the net benefit of those income support programs worth the potential cost of the marginal effective tax rate that Mr. Poilievre describes? Second, are there ways to minimize the effects that he describes?
The working income tax benefit is a great example, where it's designed principally to try to smooth out the effects of marginal effective tax rates. But as a result, in and of itself, it has one.
I would say, on balance, that's a cost that I'm prepared to accept because the program provides considerable benefit. I think it speaks to the point in my initial comments. As policy-makers design programs to help people in poverty or in low-income circumstances, it's essential that it's not done in a clumsy way because of the negative consequences that he describes.