Mr. Speaker, in strategic industries, such as arts, culture and heritage, we have the opportunity to encourage small actors to develop into large actors in that field. Yes, I absolutely support this. Income averaging is a reasonable and sensible way to deal with self-employed people, especially in the arts community.
With the $100,000 threshold, we would essentially be raising the basic personal income tax exemption for artists only on the earnings they make from their creation, which is the proposal. If they have two jobs, a real estate agent and a painter, I do not think the tax system should be subsidizing their earnings from another source. However, their earnings from their creations is a far more equitable way to stimulate and encourage creators than the current grant systems that exist now, which are complex. There is a great deal of line loss associated with the Canada Council for the Arts and other grant systems, where a lot of the tax dollars are actually burned up in the delivery and the administration of the system. It would be simpler and more straightforward to give them that tax credit.