Mr. Speaker, I am very delighted to join the debate here this afternoon. I have to start by looking at the motion that was put before us. I think there is a flaw in that very first sentence. The first sentence says, “That, in the opinion of the House, the drastic increase in income inequality...” and it went on to talk about recent governments.
I was on the finance committee. We did a pretty extensive study and we had a lot of complicated testimony. The motion starts off with a very flawed premise. I need to look at some of the statistics. I will be speaking to some of the statistics from StatsCan.
I heard the speech from the member for Toronto Centre, but I think she left that issue off in the mid-1990s and was not reflecting what has been happening more recently. Again, we have some data that is very important that we need to consider.
First, the share of the population in Canada below the low-income tax cut-off phase in 1995 was over 15% and more recently, around 2008, we are under 9%. Significant numbers of people were taken off the tax rolls. Indeed one million people, including over 300,000 seniors, have now been removed from the tax rolls.
Another statistic is on median family income, including government transfers. It was steadily worse before 1998 and it has become steadily better ever since then.
We can go into hourly average wages by gender. I know we still have some work to do in this area, but again, if we look at the graph starting in 1985 where there was a huge and significant difference, we see those graphs coming together where there is a lot less inequity in terms of wages by gender.
An important thing is the share of market income by quintile. Again there was a noticeable increase in the share going to the top 20% before 1998, but there has been very little change since then. That is an important measure.
On share of income after tax transfers, again, there are relative income gains by quintile. We had another person who talked to us about mobility, the ability for Canadians born in low-income families to move into other income opportunities. Canada has very strong measures in terms. If one is born in poverty, one does not necessarily stay there for one's whole life.
These are all measured by StatsCan. Income share of the top 1% again reflects some pretty important numbers. It was at an all-time high in the 1930s and is significantly down. There was a bit of a burst, but now we are stabilizing.
I think we have to start by looking at the premise of the question. Income inequality is an important issue, absolutely, but it is wrong to suggest that this is a situation that we all have to be fearful about. The numbers show that since the 1990s we have had some pretty good measures.
I would hasten to add that we should look at who has been in government for the last number of years. It has a large part to do with some of the policies implemented by the Conservative government. Again, one million people off the tax rolls is a hugely important number. There have been 180 tax reductions.
What the opposition members have not talked about is the report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer who said in total the cumulative changes have reduced federal taxes by $30 billion, or 12%. The low- and middle-income earners have benefited more in relative terms than the higher income earners. That is really important information.
We can look at what the NDP policies would be. The members went to the United States on an anti-trade mission to talk down our ability for the Keystone pipeline. We hear them argue against every trade agreement that comes before the House. They are anti-trade and anti-jobs. I could go on and on about the carbon tax they want to implement and the higher corporate rate for taxes. We would not have a problem with inequality if they were ever to make government, what we would have a problem with is everyone being in the low-income area because there would be no opportunities in Canada, so there would be no opportunity for inequality.
The other thing I found a bit disturbing is some of the talk I have heard today about women. I am really surprised that it is coming from the NDP.
We have choices in Canada. When my children were young, I took on a part-time job by choice. It was not that I was being suppressed; it was the fact that I truly wanted that time and opportunity to be with my children, so I took a wage reduction and went into part-time work. At that time, my husband worked a little harder to see us through. We were not rich by any means. Certainly, I did not see that it impacted my ability to be fulfilled or my career opportunities. I made a choice in terms of my children at that time.
Men make these choices also. There are times when it is women physicians, surgeons, dentists, businessmen, and women in the trades. Increasingly, this is a choice that parents will make, and it could just as well be the husband who is staying home; and increasingly it is the husband. Therefore, it is absolute nonsense for the NDP opposition to suggest that this is something that is taking us back to the Leave it to Beaver times and that it denigrates women. Whether it is the male or the female, this provides the family unit the opportunity to decide how it will work and combine careers, because as we all know, it is tough when two parents are working. It is very busy, and if there is any opportunity to help the parents in terms of what they are doing and how they are doing it, we are a government that is proud to do that.
We believe that the most effective approach to raising the incomes of Canadians and their families is to grow the economy through reducing taxes, increasing support for hard-working Canadians, promoting trade and investment, supporting key economic sectors, making education accessible and affordable, reducing barriers to labour market participation, and being strong fiscal managers. The motion that the NDP has put forward is just plain wrong and ill-conceived. As a result of our government's approach, Canadians enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world. The low income rate in Canada has been declining and now sits at an all-time low. We talked about how that changed. We can look at the graphs. Those are not made-up numbers; they are available from Statistics Canada because they are important numbers. Because of these facts, Canada's economy has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to create jobs, setting the conditions for Canadians and their families to be successful.
We often talk about our labour market performance in the G7, with more than a million net new jobs created since the recession. We still have a way to go. We recognize that we have a fragile economy and we have to watch what is happening, but we believe that families are the building blocks of our society and are critical to Canada and our long-term prosperity.
Since 2006, we have provided significant tax relief for Canadian families, and economic action plan 2014 continues on that track by keeping taxes low. These tax reductions give parents greater flexibility to make the choices that are right for them and help build a solid foundation for future economic growth, more jobs, and a higher standard of living for them and their children. Canadians at all levels of income are benefiting from the tax relief measures introduced.
The New York Times recently wrote that Canadian median incomes are the highest in the world. Middle income Canadians receive proportionately greater relief than the one million low income Canadians who have been removed from the tax rolls.
There are many things that we have done, whether it is the Canada child tax benefit, the national child benefit supplement, the disability benefit, or the child tax credit. Of these investments, two-thirds go to the low income and modest income families with children.
Unfortunately, I do not have enough time to share with the opposition all the measures that create fabrics, such as the working income tax disability. They are a basket of tax measures that are targeted, that help different groups in our society in Canada to be the prosperous families and communities in the prosperous Canada that we so truly enjoy.