Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Motion No. 395 moved by my colleague from Ahuntsic, which reads:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should index the family supplement to the cost of living in the next Federal Budget.
Let me say first of all that I am the proud young father of a beautiful 8 month old girl named Léa-Pascale. I have always believed that the family unit was a place where a child had to be able to receive all the attention and the love that he or she needed to get off to a good start in life and to build a solid foundation for his or her future. I am therefore all in favour of the family.
However, for the family to be able to fulfill those fundamental functions, the parents must have the necessary resolve. I still believe that they have this resolve, but they also need the means. Unfortunately, we know very well that for various reasons, there are many difficulties and a number of well-meaning parents cannot provide their children with the upbringing they would like.
You will therefore understand that to me, the family supplement, which increases benefits for low income families with children, is absolutely essential.
However, if this welcome supplement is to be effective, it must clearly be indexed to the cost of living; otherwise families will be no better off. This is important, all the more so as low income families are the hardest hit by the increase in the cost of living. Indexing the supplement to the cost of living should go without saying.
In fact, in order to maximize this measure, as many programs as possible should be indexed, among them the Canadian child tax benefit, which includes the national child disability benefit scheduled to take effect in July 2003. There is also the early childhood development initiative, based on the September 2000 agreement, which Quebec was promised it could opt out of with financial compensation. That is something we will certainly be reminding the new government in Quebec about. There is also the child-centred family justice strategy, which comes under the responsibility of the Minister of Justice and which is a program entirely under federal jurisdiction.
Therefore I will support Motion No. 395, but not without some reservations, which are far from being trivial.
Since several aspects of the federal family supplement infringe on the jurisdiction of Quebec and since Quebec has the right to opt out of certain programs with financial compensation, it would make sense for the amounts transferred to Quebec to be indexed to the cost of living as well. To do otherwise would be blatantly and absurdly unfair.
Finally, like my party I would have preferred that the motion not put off indexing until the next federal budget but that this clause be included in legislation governing the family supplement. This would enhance this social clause, which would benefit the numerous families who really need it.