You're raising another problem that has to do with programs that are targeted to low-income people. It's based on family income. Therefore, when there are two incomes, you lose very large parts of it.
One of the ways that would help to deal with it would be to lower the clawback rates. One of the problems with the child tax benefit is that if you have three children or more, for every $1,000 you earn, you lose $330 of your child tax benefit, plus 5% of your GST tax, plus you're paying taxes. People in those income categories often have tax rates of 80% to 90%. I think one thing the federal government could very easily do, which would benefit almost all middle-class families, would be to lower the tax-back rates, the clawback rates on the child tax benefit.
It's the same thing for the GIS. As I said, there's a 50% clawback rate that adds to tax rates, and it's the main problem with it being used as a poverty measure.
In terms of the application, well, there's no easy way to do it. Of course, the provinces are most often faced with the problem of whether or not they are cohabiting. I know Quebec has introduced a one-year rule and the cohabitation must be for 12 continuous months. It means that very short-term relationships do not have penalties.
Obviously, any kind of an ombudsman or a mechanism that gives support to women who are faced with that situation would be helpful.