Thank you so much.
Welcome to the committee, Minister. It's nice to see you for the first time at committee, Mr. Beech.
I wanted to talk a bit about the service delivery excellence that you speak about. I raised this with you initially in terms of my concern about the CRA's capacity to reach people with disabilities who are living in poverty and to get them the Canada disability benefit when it becomes available.
My concern was realized when I received a response back on an Order Paper question that was asking the CRA to give me the information on the cross-reference between disability tax certificates and income. This is relating to the disability tax credit. What came back was this answer:
The one-to-one relationship between claimants and certificate holders is difficult to ascertain, with the possibility of more than one individual being a claimant on the same certificate. For this reason, CRA is unable to provide the income breakdowns of certificate holders (the beneficiaries) and is not in a position to respond in the manner requested.
My question is for you, Mr. Minister. How will the government ensure that those living in poverty who need the Canada disability benefit will get it, and does the government accept that the disability tax credit system cannot be the only entry point for the disability benefit?