Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure on this budget day to comment on the report of the Sub-committee on Children and Youth at Risk of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. I am particularly pleased to discuss this report because of its impact on families and children. The report has laid out some excellent observations for members of the committee and for all members of parliament to consider and I would like to note four of them.
Under the public policy framework the committee suggests that to address the situation facing children and youth at risk governments must make a firm five-year fiscal commitment to develop an integrated public policy framework for families and children. We have certainly commenced on that road and the recommendation that we continue with a comprehensive five-year fiscal program for families and children is very appropriate and is supported by all members of the House.
In the area of income and services there is strong agreement that there should be two simultaneous tracks to deal with families and children, one which focuses on income support for families and one which focuses on services for families and children.
The committee also pointed out the need to make some modifications to the income tax system. Members will know that this is an area in which I have had substantial activity. Some of my private member's bills and motions have dealt with things like the Canada child tax benefit, the child care expense deduction and the caregiver credit. Motion No. 30, which passed in this place in the last parliament, would provide a caregiver benefit to those who provide care in the home to preschool children, the chronically ill, the aged and the disabled. I think these are important areas for us to look at.
The fourth area that I would like to note is that the committee felt an immediate $1.5 billion improvement to the national child benefit was important and should be extended to low income families, including those on social assistance. As part of the work I have done with regard to families, particularly those who are on social assistance, it is very obvious to all that it is very difficult financially for Canadians who are on welfare to make the transition to the workforce.
The benefits which people on social assistance and welfare receive are often not available to those who leave welfare to go into the paid labour force. We can take medical or dental expenses as an example. There are certainly a number of social assistance features which are not available. That was one of the reasons the national child benefit, which is part of the overall program of the Canada child tax benefit system, was introduced. It was introduced in conjunction with the provinces, and the understanding clearly was that the provinces were in a position to decide whether they were going to reduce the transfers to people on the overall child tax benefit and the national child benefit for those who were on welfare.
The whole idea of the national child benefit program was to help people to make the transition from welfare and social assistance to the paid labour force. I raise that point for discussion with the House. It is important that we understand that where unemployment is very high and the prospect of new jobs in the near term for people on welfare and social assistance is much lower in some provinces, as a result, in two cases, the provinces decided they would not offset the transfer from the federal government against the welfare payments and in fact give the additional amounts.
Those are provincial decisions. Those were part of the negotiations of the federal government with the provinces to ensure that the right things happen.
The member from the Bloc Quebecois raised a couple of issues which bear some comment. First, she commented with regard to the CHST, the Canada health and social transfer. She basically claimed that the cuts in the CHST have to be restored. The member will well know that the Prime Minister outlined for the House several times last week that today the combination of cash and tax point transfers to the provinces is greater than it was in 1993. That is an important point.
Canadians have to understand that the federal government has given the authority to the provinces to collect taxes. As their economies grow, the amount of tax revenue which they collect on that growing economy also means that the provinces will get additional revenues. The combination of cash transfers and tax points is the important element.
The member also talked about social housing and homelessness. She will well know that this is not a simple problem. One aspect of this has to do with children. Of the homeless recognized in the Anne Golden report in Toronto, 28% of the homeless were youth. Of those, 70% had experienced physical or sexual abuse while they were in the family home.
It is important to understand that social housing and homelessness are separate issues.