Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I rise to speak on the motion to eliminate the discriminatory tax treatment of single earner families.
There is no more important fundamental debate about the future of our country than the debate about the future of the children of Canada. If one takes the time to review the information that abounds on this topic, including the Mustard studies, it has been demonstrated unequivocally that the first three years and the first six years are the most important years in the development of a child's cognitive skills and socialization skills. During that period it is absolutely pivotal that a child have a stimulating environment in which to develop the type of creativity and socialization necessary to succeed in an increasingly complex knowledge based society.
The discriminatory policy against single earner families with children is one way the government is currently encouraging one type of behaviour over another. It is what I refer to as a Pavlovian tax policy which tries to encourage or push Canadians toward one type of activity and discourage another type.
Our party believes very strongly that Canadian families should have the opportunity to make their own choices on these types of matters and that the government does not have a role in trying to push Canadian families, for instance in this case to putting their children in day care when in fact many Canadian families would prefer one parent to be actively involved and stay at home to help raise the children.
The C. D. Howe Institute in its recent studies calculated that a single earner family making $60,000 per year will pay a penalty of $4,000 per year over what a double income family would pay. A single earner family at $70,000 would actually pay a $14,000 penalty over what a double earner income family would pay. This is clearly unfair.
The Liberals point to the child tax credit, and I have heard this repeatedly over the past few days, as a way to ameliorate the perverse effects of their tax policy. The fact is that the tax credit through means testing reduces any benefits to Canadian families beyond an income of $65,000, actually $67,000. There is no benefit beyond that. In fact the benefit begins to decline at the $25,000 level. For the Liberals to point to the child tax credit as a way to ameliorate or to soften the impact of their perverse tax policies is absolutely false. It is bogus and is not reflective of the realities here.
The fact is that on the lower income levels, eight of the 10 provinces are clawing back the child tax benefits from the social assistance recipients. While the child tax credit purports to benefit Canadian families and Canadian children directly, it does not because at the low income level, eight of the 10 provinces are clawing back the money. Money that was designed to directly impact the lives of Canadian children is being used to support provincial bureaucracies. At the middle income levels it is being clawed back by the federal government so as to not provide that benefit to families that need it.
Ottawa encourages new parents to put their children in day care. We believe that families should be able to make these choices. I think we all know of cases where having both parents working in professional situations particularly is actually advantageous to the children. The parents choose to work and they choose to be self-actualized in a work environment and they choose an appropriate positive day care environment for their children. Everyone wins. There is nothing wrong with that.
Some people argue that it is better for a child to have stay at home parenting. Some recent studies actually demonstrate that either can work, but it depends on the individual family. It is important that individual families and parents can make these choices.
Our party is not advocating a return to some 1950s model of a Ward and June Cleaver family. This is not what we are advocating. We are not purporting to know what is best for Canadian families. But we believe that Canadian families know what is best for them and what is best for their children and that they can make those types of decisions.
The tax system should not encourage, in our opinion, either stay at home parenting or the utilization of a day care system or an alternative system. We should not be encouraging either. We should give Canadians the choice. It would be equally pernicious and counterproductive to have a discriminatory policy against two income families, because in some cases that may be the best alternative.
Our position on this has remained consistent from as far back as August 1996 at our Winnipeg policy conference. I will quote from a document: “A Progressive Conservative government would introduce a joint tax return so that single earner households with dependent children stop paying more tax than dual earner households with equal incomes”. That was in August 1996. “Beyond that, a Progressive Conservative government will introduce a child care tax credit available to parents working inside or outside of the home to replace the present system of day care credits”. We have been consistent on that.
I know the hon. member for Mississauga South has worked assiduously on this issue. “Caring for children is an honourable profession. Parents who make the sacrifices and deliver quality care have earned the right to get support”. That is a quote by the hon. member for Mississauga South who is an expert in this area and has written extensively on it.
Why does the Liberal government not listen to its own members who have devoted so much time, research and effort to this cause and eliminate this discriminatory tax policy that takes choices away from Canadian families and parents? Ultimately it may result in Canadian children not having the best possible start in their lives, particularly in this global knowledge based society where their cognitive skills and brain power are not only going to enrich their own lives but will reflect directly on the future standard of living of Canadians.
This issue currently, and it is argued disproportionately, affects women. Working women with children, for instance some argue, are actually paying an incredible cost because not only are they working hard in the workplace but when they return home, despite the fact that society has evolved somewhat, they are still faced with a disproportionate share of work in the home whether it is with child rearing or other domestic areas. This is fundamentally unfair but it is a fact that women continue to share a significant burden both in the homes and in the workplace.
We have evolved from an agrarian society where men had significant advantages because people made their livings with their hands and brute force, to an industrial society where to a certain extent that may have been reduced but still occurred, to a knowledge based society today. I would argue that in a knowledge based society, women will have significant advantages over men.
On the issue about it disproportionately affecting women, people should recognize that in an evolutionary sense, in the future this will not disproportionately affect either sex. Based on the graduation ceremonies I have been attending over the past several years for grade 12 and also university, women are winning the scholarships and the student council presidencies. They are earning top marks not just in history, arts and English but in maths and sciences. In the future this issue is going to affect all Canadians equally regardless of gender.
Some members opposite may say that this motion is some type of archaic movement by the opposition parties to return Canadian society to the Ward and June Cleaver family model. I would argue that from our party's perspective it is a way of effectively recognizing a societal trend that will benefit all Canadians of either gender. We also believe that we should start treating all Canadians fairly and equally and it should start with the Canadian family. Give Canadian families the opportunity to make the best choices for their children.
Some will choose for both parents to work and for the children to have appropriate care outside the home. Some will choose to stay at home. The best choices can be made closest to the people affected, the children. Those choices can clearly be made best by the families of those children.
Let us get away from this ridiculous Pavlovian tax policy of the government where it believes that it can make the best choices. Let us return the choices to the people who really should have had them from the beginning, the Canadian parents and families for the benefit of Canadian children.