Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all hon. members who over the last few months as we have had private members debate on Motion M-30 have taken the opportunity to discuss the motion. The motion says that we should consider the advisability of amending the Income Tax Act to provide a caregiver tax credit to those who provide care in the home to preschool children, the chronically ill, the aged or the disabled. I am very gratified that so many members spoke in favour of this motion.
I want to comment briefly on the position articulated by one member on the concern about the costs of such a change. The member has raised an excellent point.
We must always assume that there is no new money to be spent on new benefits or across the board tax cuts or anything like that. But it is incumbent on the government to look at other ways to fund perhaps by consolidating other tax benefits to create this caregiver tax credit.
I would use as an example what was done with the seniors benefit which is a consolidation of the old age security and the GIS brought into a new credit, a new benefit for seniors outside the tax system. It is funded by the former envelope for OAS and GIS. I see that as a parallel which may be an opportunity.
A number of members have raised the issue about how do we get the money. I could give a couple of examples. The previous speaker talked very briefly and quoted me with regard to the child care expense deduction. If we converted that deduction to a tax credit and also made it subject to an income test, that would generate approximately $400 million in savings to the government.
There is the spousal non-refundable tax credit which is available to all where one spouse is working and one is not but it is not subject to having any children. If we were talking about using our limited resources to apply for those who really have need or are investing in children, having those funds diverted to being part of this new caregiver tax credit certainly would be an option. That would generate $1.2 billion of additional funding for the caregiver tax credit.
The final item I would give as an example is the equivalent to spouse non-refundable tax credit. This is a benefit to families which split up. Not only do two adults get the credit but one of the children can be elevated to the adult status for a third credit. In my view it benefits families that split apart rather than those that stay together. If we were to rethink these kinds of things we would find it would generate a savings of somewhere around $200 million.
In total those items which I have simply talked about right now generate somewhere upward of $2 billion of funding that could be directed toward the caregiver tax credit.
This being a private member's motion, I remind all hon. members that it is not encumbering the government to do anything. A private member's motion is simply to ask the House to consider the advisability of looking at this and possibly some funding sources.
I will conclude by quoting the wife of the President of the United States who I thought had a very interesting comment. She said that we can talk about family values all we want but would it not be better if we looked for ways to have legislative initiatives that would value families.
I thank all hon. members for participating in this debate on a family issue, something that is very near to me. I ask hon. members for their support in making Motion M-30 an issue which the government should give some consideration to.