Thank you, Minister. I appreciate your understanding. I hope that's an area we'll all be able to work on together across party lines, because I think some of those changes definitely need to happen.
Minister Duclos, I want to ask you about income splitting. I know that perhaps we have a bit of a philosophical difference when it comes to income splitting, but I've never understood the argument against it. Income splitting is a tax cut, but it's about tax fairness. It's about the idea that if you have two families that are earning the same family income, then they should pay the same amount of tax. You can have one family that's earning $60,000 because one person is making $30,000 and the other person's making $30,000, and then you have another family that's making $60,000 because one is making $45,000 and the other is making $15,000. Under an income-splitting system both of those families pay the same amount of tax. Under a system without income splitting they don't pay the same amount of tax. It seems to me intuitive that if you have two different families with the same family income, then they should pay the same rate and the same amount of tax. Your government disagrees. By eliminating income splitting in this budget, families who make different kinds of choices, choices that are good for their families in their view, will pay more tax and a higher rate of tax. As a father of young children, and someone who represents a riding with many young families, this doesn't make any sense to me. I wouldn't ever judge the child care choices that any family makes, but I would suggest that families should pay the same rate of tax if they earn the same income. I'd appreciate your comments on that.