Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer today said that our grandchildren will not be saddled with the burden of that responsibility. I think that comment was taken out of context, and the Parliamentary Budget Officer has added clarification on that issue today.
In reference to his question about the middle class, this budget would do so much for the middle class. I am thinking of the universal child care benefit. The biggest beneficiaries of the universal child care benefit would be low- and middle-income families. For every child under the age of six, each family would get $2,000 annually. For children between the ages of six and 17, they would get $720 annually. As a percentage of income, the middle-class and low-income earners would be the biggest beneficiaries of that program.
In addition, we are not mandating that people send their children to a daycare to be recipients of that money. It is a very fair way of saying that they can choose to invest that money in a state-funded daycare, or they can choose to invest that money with a friend or a relative down the way who is willing to look after their children while they seek employment, or they can just use that money to subsidize their household budgets if they are stay-at-home parents. That is one of the most fair and appropriate tax measure in this budget for low- and middle-income families.