Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question.
In fact, the refundable tax credit would have been preferable to a cash transfer. However, I disagree with his statement that families should have had to wait until the end of the year, when they prepare their tax return.
I will give a good example. The government can determine family income levels when the time comes—and even in advance—to provide tax credits, GST credits, for example. Those credits are paid quarterly. The same principle could be applied with the refundable tax credit.
I heard the Prime Minister or the Minister of Finance say that the Bloc Québécois does not want Canadians to receive a cheque with a flag on it.
They are aware of it, they started the propaganda with the Canadian flag all over the place, and more than once. But that is not the point. There could have been a refundable tax credit, payable by cheque with a Canadian flag or two—if they want 10, they could put 10 on—or even on a whole flag, but quarterly like the tax credit for the GST. That would be no problem.
The benefit would have been twofold: the jurisdictions of the provinces and Quebec would have been respected and the amounts would have been totally tax free. This is not currently the case.
As I was saying, the families not paying for child care, in which one parent stays home—the folks the Conservatives are targeting—will the big losers. They will get $486 less a year if they have two dependent children under six and were getting the national child tax benefit. This is what is incongruous in the Conservative approach.