It's only the sponsor's income. Let's say the sponsor is in Canada and wants to sponsor their spouse overseas. Only the sponsor's income in Canada will be included.
I have seen cases where, for instance, a sponsor actually tried to sponsor his spouse; the child dependant was a Canadian citizen by birth since the sponsor was a citizen; and because the mother was not a citizen, she needed to be sponsored. The father brought the child back to Canada and tried to bring his wife, but because he could not bring his wife, he became a single parent. He had to go on social assistance. He had no choice. He had to look after his six-year-old child. Meanwhile, he was not able to sponsor his wife: he was on social assistance.
I understand that there is a sponsorship requirement. Nobody is asking for the sponsorship requirement piece to be lifted. You can still sign an undertaking to sponsor. You are still responsible for that person during the sponsorship period. What we are saying is that in deciding who can be the sponsor, income often is not the best indicator. You can have someone who makes a lot of money and who is still not meeting the requirement to sponsor the family. But you may have someone low-income who will in fact, having the extra family here, have more than one person making a living and all that kind of stuff.