Mr. Speaker, that was a nice try at a defence but it is just not true.
Wealthy people who have a spouse making no income can have that money and it will not be deducted. Therefore it inordinately affects poor people. Poor people who do not have income are getting other benefits that are then clawed back. As the member remembers, the Caledon Institute cited that a poor person could get as little as $200 of the $1,200, which is 55¢ a day and covers day care for 14 minutes.
The Liberals provided so much out of the national child benefit to support parents staying at home. The Conservatives are saying to Canadians that for 14 minutes a day, 55¢, they can quit their job and stay at home.
Perhaps poorer people will get a little more money in total but the fact that the government would increase the income tax level for poor people and not do that for others, the fact that it would remove the child tested income supplement as part of the national child benefit that affects poor people and the fact that this is discriminatory, that corporations and people who do not need the break get much more of a break than other people, is really unconscionable.