Mr. Speaker, first let me applaud the time, effort and extensive research that has been focused on women, on their families and particularly on the children of our country by the very important work that has been done by our colleague, the member for Nepean, in keeping the government focused on the true needs of Canada's children.
I have listened with a great deal of interest to the two speeches by the opposition parties. It gives me a great sense of hope that we will make the kind of enlightened decision that we have been working very hard for over the last number of months. We hope that when the changes are brought forward we will receive the kind of support for the interest and time that we have spent to find the right solutions.
With respect to my friend from Nepean, I think the children of this land can thank her and I personally wish to thank her for bringing this really important and timely issue to our attention today.
I share the concerns of the member for Nepean that Canada's child support system must be improved. In the spring of 1994, following the decision in the Thibaudeau case, which I think came down in May, our task force was organized, on the road and listening to groups by the end of June or the beginning of July. The government named this small task force to hear the views around this very complex and emotional question.
My colleagues, the member for Winnipeg Centre and the member for Saskatoon-Humboldt, and I can tell the House that we spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in a very emotional setting hearing the views of parents, both men and women, grandparents, divorced fathers, divorced mothers, leaders of the legal profession, the accounting profession and those who were impacted, such as those in the social services and health network.
The stories of these single parents, the child support payers and those parents in the intact families were so heart rending that one was moved to wonder how the family had been able to cope with the well-being of the child in many cases.
We saw over 550 people. We received over 500 briefs. The information and views that were expressed shaped the report which I brought to cabinet from this task force on child support. I know, my cabinet colleagues know, and in particular the ministers concerned know that we need to present reforms.
However, this is not an easy country to govern. It is vital that we have co-operation and collaboration. We have been working on that. I can guarantee that we will have that commitment to change for the support system. We have been working very hard, constructively and co-operatively over these many months. We have practically completed crafting the right and fair balance in the final analysis for the well-being of the children of this country.
While the government has been very pleased to receive my colleagues' suggestions for improvements to the taxation of child support payments, we must also remember that a system of child support involves a number of elements. We must recognize the necessity of reforming the system as a whole, not just piecemeal. That means considering much needed changes to the amount
awarded for child support and the method used to enforce those support orders. Some of these issues fall, as members well know, under provincial jurisdiction.
In addition to fair taxation for child support payments, the parents need a more equitable and simplified system for determining those child support awards. Under such a system, awards could generally be higher through more realistic guidelines to the courts based on the real cost of child rearing and the shared ability of both parents to pay. The variation in award levels in similar family circumstances could therefore be greatly reduced. Frankly, many of the inequities could also be eliminated.
Compliance with court ordered support payments also needs to be improved. It is a sad fact that approximately 60 per cent of support orders are not obeyed. I find that totally abhorrent in the interests of the children and also because it is an abuse of our legal system. That means many single mothers in Canada receive no support payments at all for their children. The cost to society is unfair as many of the families have to resort to welfare. That is unfair for the rest of country.
Our government is committed to bringing forward a comprehensive policy solution which will address each aspect of the child support equation: awards, enforcement, and the taxation of child support payments. We recognize that the taxation of child support payments is perceived as unfair. The rules give a tax deduction to the payer, usually the father, while the custodial parent, usually the mother, pays taxes on the payments and he or she, as the case may be, also bears the partial cost of those supports.
This whole issue is seen as accentuating the problem of poverty particularly among single mothers and is seen as unfair to intact families. We also recognize that some changes are necessary in the complete package.
This government is close to completing its work on child support reforms. We propose to introduce guidelines to increase the award levels. We will put forward a program to improve the enforcement of support orders. We are also completing our review of the tax treatment of child support payments. Our objective is to reform the system for child support so that it is fair, consistent across the land and reflects the best interests of the children wherever they live.
The second facet of Bill C-241 consists of amending the Income Tax Act so that it includes child support payments within the meaning of "earned income" for the purposes of the child care expense deduction.
Allow me to explain the rationale behind the provisions of the Income Tax Act with respect to the child care side of the issue, particularly with regard to child care expenses. The purpose of the child care expense deduction is to recognize for tax purposes the child care expenses that taxpayers must incur in order to earn income, to attend a recognized educational institution full time, or to take a vocational training course.
This deduction is a way for the tax system to acknowledge that these taxpayers have a lower capacity to pay taxes than other taxpayers who have identical incomes but do not have child care expenses. With the changing definition of family and because there are families of a variety of shapes, notwithstanding that we must have that fairness principle in there and recognize that the family is the basis of society.
In a sense the child care expense deduction is a recognition of the contribution to our own future as a society through our children. Under this deduction the income used to pay for child care expenses is not taxable.
Including child support payments in the definition of earned income for the purpose of a child care expense deduction would be a precedent that would make it difficult to deny the same treatment to persons in receipt of income from other sources.
All of this information regarding the current tax system is to say that we need to examine changes to the taxation of child support in a comprehensive way. We need to look at not only the tax side, but also review the issue of enforcement and award levels. Any changes must be done in concert one with the other.
Our challenge is to produce a package of changes in the tax rules, in the setting of awards and in the enforcement of support orders, as I have said, that is fair to all concerned and reflects what is best for our children. The government is acting to meet this challenge. We expect to announce specific changes very shortly. While I admire the intent of the member for Nepean and I agree with her wholeheartedly on the need for these changes, I simply remind this House that we need complete change and that we must get it right.
Most important, when we are pursuing options to change the tax treatment of child support, we must consider only those options that go to the root of the problem. Unfortunately, the member's bill also includes additional changes to the taxation of child support which regretfully make it impossible for the government to support her bill without reservations at this time.