Madam Speaker, I want to ask my colleague about an issue that is critically important to all Canadians as they get older. That issue is poverty, particularly with respect to seniors. Madam Speaker, as you well know in your work, poverty is pervasive and incessantly undermines a certain segment of our population, people who struggle to meet their basic needs on a day-to-day basis.
One of the things we did in our green shift was to shift sums of money to the poorest individuals, particularly those who make less than $20,000 a year. People who make less than $20,000 a year actually pay tax. Someone making just shy of $20,000 would pay almost $2,000 in tax.
If the government were to implement a plan to ensure that Canadians who make less than $20,000 a year did not pay any federal tax, which can be done and I have a bill to that effect, the government would be doing a huge service to help those who are most impoverished in our society. Would my hon. colleague join us in pushing the government to implement a plan to ensure that those who make less than $20,000 a year do not pay federal tax? We should not be taxing the poorest in our country. They are having a hard enough time making ends meet.