Mr. Speaker, I heard the words bogus and disingenuous and a total denial of whether or not there were certain tax cuts. The member has stated a less than accurate situation.
Prior to reindexing the system each and every tax period the opposition party continued to show they were tax increases because there was no indexation. They constantly counted up the number of tax increases. Now that there is indexation he is saying that is not a tax cut. He cannot have it both ways.
The member also includes CPP premium increases as a tax increase. He well knows that the CPP is a separately funded instrument. It includes not only Canada pension plan retirement benefits. There are spousal benefits and death benefits available to children and spouses. There also is a disability insurance component for Canadians. This will ensure stability of the Canada pension plan.
His party has said that it wants to scrap the CPP and have mandatory RRSPs. He cannot have it both ways. This program is very important to Canadians.
With regard to the child tax benefit he says it as disingenuous because it is not on the tax return. Family allowance used to be on the tax return. It was taxable and deductions were allowed, et cetera.
Now that it has been taken off the tax return it gives us an opportunity to deliver child tax benefits to families each and every month rather than their waiting for a year before filing a tax return. It is not taxable so the money gets to people's hands when they need it. For the member to say that there were no net tax benefits to Canadians is simply wrong.