Mr. Speaker, essentially the minister said that income inequality is not a problem. Let us look at the statistics from Statistics Canada. Median income from 1976 to just a couple of years ago grew by a staggering 0.2% for the middle class. In 2002, the average CEO in Canada earned 84 times what the average worker in that same company earned. Flash forward 10 years later, just a couple of years ago, that went up to 122 times the amount for the CEO as compared to the worker. In 1982, the top 1% earned 7% of all of Canada's income. Now that same group earns 12%. We have seen median wages stagnate over that same period, but the minister denies that.
Let us get to income inequality, which his colleagues ignored. Let us talk about who does not benefit from my friend's myopic vision of the world. People who make under $44,000 a year do not benefit. Would a couple who make $44,000 each but are both in the same tax bracket benefit? Absolutely not. Single parents do not benefit. People who do not have kids do not benefit. People who are divorced do not benefit. Of all Canadians, 86% do not benefit from this $5-billion tax scheme.
The Conservatives have the audacity to talk about fairness. What about the 86%? What about the idea that fairness should apply to all as opposed to this very narrow scheme that costs so much money, skews to the wealthy, and leaves out more than 85% of this country?