Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure this evening to speak to Motion No. 30. I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion which was put forward by my hon. friend, the member for Mississauga South.
The motion asks the government to provide a caregiver tax credit for those who provide care in the home for preschool aged children, the disabled, the chronically ill and the elderly. The tax system already provides a significant amount of assistance to families that provide care in the home for their dependants.
For parents with children, the child care expense deduction helps those with modest incomes with child care expenses they incur while at work, attending school full time or taking an eligible vocational training course.
The supplement to the child tax benefit helps parents who choose to remain in the home to raise their preschool children. It provides assistance to low and middle income families that have preschool aged children but do not have deductible child care expenses.
This year the supplement is $213 for each child who is six years old or younger and is in addition to the regular benefit of $1,020 for each child.
The working income supplement, the WIS, a component of the child tax benefit, helps low income working families meet some of the extra costs related to earning employment income, such as child care and transportation to work. It is a non-taxable benefit of up to $500.
Changes introduced in the 1996 budget will double this supplement to $1,000 by 1998, increasing the benefits to more than 700,000 working families by an average of $350 a year. While the WIS is available to two-income families, it is also available to the single earner families where one spouse stays at home as a caregiver.
For people with disabilities and families caring for elderly or disabled relatives, the disability tax credit provides significant benefits to those with a severe and prolonged mental or physical impairment. The credit reduces the federal tax of claimants by about $750 and is equivalent to an exemption of $4,235 for those in the 17 per cent tax bracket. The unused amount of the credit can be transferred to the supporting relative to recognize that people with disabilities and low incomes are often supported and cared for by family members.
The medical expense tax credit provides tax relief for those with extraordinary medical expenses by providing a tax credit for medical expenses in excess of a certain percentage of a taxpayer's net income. Among the many expenses that qualify for this credit is up to $5,000 in respite, or part time attendant care expenses. This is specifically intended to help families caring for elderly or disabled relatives at home by providing tax assistance for part time or temporary attendant care. Families who care for elderly or disabled relatives can claim the unused amounts of the credit.
Individuals supporting relatives with a disability can also claim the infirm dependant credit which was significantly enriched in the 1996 budget. Depending on the income of the dependant, the credit reduces the federal tax of a supporting relative by up to $400 and is equivalent to the deduction of up to $2,353 for those with incomes in the 17 per cent bracket.
Through all these measures the federal tax system provided $1.4 billion in tax assistance in 1996 to families with preschool aged children, the disabled and the elderly.
My colleague's motion to introduce a caregiver tax credit does not indicate how much such a credit would cost taxpayers, nor are there sufficient details to estimate the proposed cost. If the proposed credits were to cost more than the current level of tax assistance, the government would have to reduce spending on other programs in order to avoid an increase in the deficit.
For these reasons the government cannot support private member's Motion M-30.
On another note, there is no question that all of us would like to have a perfect family situation. We would like to have children reared in an environment that is caring and nurturing, where they get all the tools they require to become good citizens. The government works on many fronts. There are moneys in the Department of Health. There are moneys in the HRD department. There are income tax benefits. All of these are used collectively to try to improve the situation of Canadian families.
Where children are reared properly with a lot of nurturing and caring there is certainly a good community. If we travel around this world and see an environment where people are doing well, where there are many jobs and the environment is good there is less crime. When a country is functioning properly children are treated properly. They get the correct nurturing, they get the correct education and they develop. A country's chief resource is its people. It is people and ideas. It is not physical structures.
I like the general objectives of the motion of my colleague, the member for Mississauga South but obviously there are mechanisms currently within the system. After the deficit is looked after we may be able to look in that direction in the future.