Mr. Speaker, the member spent some time talking about the $1,200 child tax allowance. He suggested, as did the Caledon Institute, that the allowance was skewed in terms of the value of the benefit to wealthier Canadians than to average Canadians.
As a solution the member suggested that consideration might be given to including it as a refundable tax credit. I would like to ask him about this. With refundable tax credits, yes, the money would flow even if there was no income. The money would get there, but the recipients would have to wait until they filed a tax return and actually received the refund cheque or a reduced payment made when filing their taxes.
Maybe it would be better to make it part of the Canada child tax benefit program which is a non-taxable amount which is paid monthly and is streamed more to low and modest income Canadians. In fact, higher income Canadians would not even qualify for it. I wonder if the member would care to comment on the possibility of including it in the Canada child tax benefit.