Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this motion. I believe it is important for us to understand what this motion is attempting to do so we can speak to it intelligently.
Clearly the child tax benefit that has been in place since 1984 has had a regime which requires a 3% adjustment for inflation on an annual basis. If we do not have that 3% increase in inflation, there is no adjustment to the child tax credit.
What we have noticed with that is that there is a double whammy here actually for Canadians. First, if someone's income goes up at about the rate of inflation, 1% or 2%, they are now in a higher dollar bracket with no real additional spending power. Therefore, their child tax benefit is actually reduced. Over and above that, the child tax benefit is also not indexed with inflation and therefore the buying power of it is also lower each year. Because we do not adjust this unless the inflation rate is over 3%, there has been a slippage over the last 12 years in the value to Canadian families of the child tax benefit.
As the member opposite alluded to, the real buying power loss of those Canadian families who have participated in this over that 12 year period is about a $900 million shortfall in the benefits that are paid out under this program when it is adjusted for inflation. If it had kept in step with inflation, there would be $900 million more available for Canadian families.
The member said that we cannot afford to do this because we have to balance the budget. It is interesting that we would prioritize drawing these funds on the backs of Canadian families to balance the budget. I am suggesting there is probably quite a few other lower priorities that should be looked at first.
The key point is that there is a continual ratcheting down effect so that the benefit to Canadian families continues to drop. The winner is the federal government in that the program to which it has been committed is there for Canadian families and continues to cost it less and less even though its tax revenues continue to increase. It is one small example of the beginnings of many incremental pressures on the backs of Canadian families for some time.
I refer to the outcome of the incremental ratcheting effect of the pressures on Canadian families. It is interesting to note—and some members in the previous debate made reference to it—that the average Canadian family has suffered a $3,000 drop in real income since the current government took office in 1993. It is this subtle, tax by stealth approach that has eroded the real income of Canadian families.
For example, in 1996 Statistics Canada said that the average Canadian family spent $21,000 on a combined tax bill and only $17,000 on food, clothing and shelter. It is time to stop the kind of thinking which says let us take a dollar from a Canadian and give it to the government. Then the bureaucracy and the overhead involved in it take a portion of the dollar and some fraction of the dollar in benefit is given back to Canadians. Our approach in this party is that it is best to leave the full dollar in the pockets of the Canadian family.
There have been many comments made about some of the government's programs and the rhetoric surrounding the concern for children. I was glad the member who just spoke acknowledged that it was not children in poverty but the family. The best way to care for the children is within the family. I appreciate that comment and I concur with it. We must make sure our policies are not blind to the fact that children are dependants within. They are not entities.
The value of the family cannot be understated. The mothers and fathers are raising our next generation, our future Canadians. They are the ones who teach them right from wrong. They are the ones who pass on our culture. Within a family we learn the subtleties of human relationships and personal sacrifice and how to get along with one another. It is a critical institution. It is the foundation of our society.
I quote from the United Nations General Assembly which said some years back that the family was a natural and fundamental unit of society and was entitled to protection by society and the state. The World Congress of Families in Prague last year said that the family was the first social unit and that it held primacy over all man-made communities, economic entities and governments. It also said that policies which undermined the family eroded the bedrock of society.
We have a number of special interest groups and people clamouring for more rights. This is going on while the mom, the dad and the kids are under attack. I liken it to having a nice home. The top floor is being renovated. A crew is fixing things and changing wallpaper. This is the people clamouring for more rights, the special interest group.
Unfortunately some of the policies in our current government has a demolition crew working on the foundation. All the effort to try to renovate the house on the top floor is for not when the foundation is being torn apart.
One of the best examples I can use to illustrate this point is the fact that we have a discriminatory policy surrounding children and child care. We have had it for a number of years. We do not like to talk about discrimination in Canada. We think we are above that. Yet we have tolerated it for years when it comes to Canadian families.
Parents who wish to care for their children at home are given a subtle message by the government. There is no value in their doing that, but if they wish to have someone care for their child outside the home they will receive a full tax benefit. Or, if a third party cares for their children there is tax treatment for that. There is absolutely none for the parents who wish to care for their children at home.
It is not even a money issue to me although that is part of it. It is the subtle message to these parents, to these mothers or fathers who care for their children at home, that there is no value in what they are doing. It is absolutely the wrong message to be sending to Canadian families who are working so hard to raise our next generation.
That is why the Reform Party has long been calling for a child care deduction for all parents including those parents who care for their children at home. They should not be excluded so that the parent could make the choice. A number of studies have been conducted. One study done in Ontario quotes the fact that most parents believe that the best way to raise and care for children is with a parent at home.
With that in mind I bring forward other proposals Reform is encouraging the government to adopt in its upcoming budget. The government should consider a spousal deduction that would enable families to better support one of the spouses at home. It should begin a plan that would see any surplus applied to reducing the debt and reducing taxes.
We are very confident in our numbers. If the government were to follow our plan, by the year 2001 the average family of four in Canada could have $2,000 in its pocket which it otherwise would have had to pay in the form of tax bills to the government. That would be $2,000 in the pockets of Canadian families to take away some of the pressure they are under. We would encourage that approach.
We have other proposals. One is to take low income families right off the tax roll altogether. There is no sense in taking money from someone who is at a low income level and then trying to give them money back because government overhead takes much of that money away.
This motion is a tiny step in the right direction because it has compassion for families and children. We are not saying that it is our whole program or that it is even part of our program, but it is a step in the right direction that recognizes the importance of families and some of the inequities they have been dealt by the current government.
Without a doubt the Canadian family is part of the foundation of society. It is the commitment of the Reform Party to do everything possible in the days and years ahead in every act and bill we bring forward to strengthen and encourage the Canadian family in every way.