Mr. Speaker, rising in the House today gives me the opportunity to talk about the greatest country in the world, and that is Canada. In my opinion, the greatest value of this country is fairness. It does not matter where one comes from, what race one is, what religion one believes in, the size of one's wallet, how much money one has or who one is connected to, this country is about opportunity, fairness, hard work and our people.
We in this country are so lucky. We are rich in resources. We have oil and gas. We have iron ore, nickel, and we have diamonds. However, our greatest resource is our people, and investing in our people is what makes this country the greatest place on earth.
That is why our government believes in investing in our greatest resource, our people, and investing in their health care, in the infrastructure in their communities and helping businesses. Our plan includes investing in transit, in providing more CPP, so that our seniors will have more money in their retirement years, and increasing the guaranteed income supplement for our seniors and our vulnerable people.
Our plan included bringing forward the Canada child benefit, which impacts so many families. Nine out of ten families have more money in their pockets today to invest in their kids.
Our plan includes lowering the cost of higher education for our students, so that they can have hope and the opportunity through their hard work to become our future astronauts, construction workers, nurses, doctors and any other profession under the sun.
This is our competitive advantage. Canadians know that when everyone is at their best, when we work together, we build together, dream together, we can achieve anything.
Canadians deserve to feel confident that their hard work will be rewarded with greater opportunities and a fair chance at success. We believe that a fair tax system is fundamental to instilling this confidence. When middle-class Canadians have more money to invest, save and grow the economy, all Canadians benefit.
Right from day one, our government has taken action on this understanding. Our first legislative action was to raise taxes on the wealthiest Canadians in order to cut taxes for the middle class, and now nearly nine million Canadians are benefiting from this middle-class tax cut. Single individuals who benefit from the middle-class tax cut are saving on average $330 a year, while couples who benefit are saving about $540 a year.
We then moved to provide simpler, more generous and better targeted support to those Canadian families who needed it the most. We did this by replacing, in 2016, the old child benefit system with the Canada child benefit.
During the first year of the new benefit, over 3.3 million families received more than $23 billion in CCB payments. As a result of the CCB, 9 out of ten families were better off during that first year. These families received on average almost $2,300 more in tax-free benefits, unlike the previous program. I am proud to say that the CCB has helped to lift about 300,000 children out of poverty. What an amazing measure. The government has worked on poverty reduction for many years, but the CCB made a monumental difference in the vision we have, that no child and no family should live in poverty in our great country.
To ensure that the CCB continues to play a vital role in helping those Canadian families, our government strengthened the CCB by indexing those benefits, and we did that to the cost of living. We did that for two full years before we made an announcement. That will help to grow our economy and help our fiscal position.
This is an important achievement, not just for those looking to build a better future for their families but for all Canadians. Thanks to the middle-class tax cut and the Canada child benefit, now a typical middle-class family of four receives, on average, about $2,000 more each year to help with the cost of raising their children, saving for the future and growing our economy for the benefit of everyone.
Following this success, our government went even further to deliver tax support to those who need it most. We know that low-income Canadians are working sometimes two or three jobs so that they can join that middle class. They are working hard. We have to give them those rungs on that ladder so that they can continue to climb. They want to give their children and their grandchildren a better chance at success. Like all Canadians, they deserve to have that through their hard work and be rewarded through opportunities that we will provide.
Through our budget 2018, we introduced the new Canada workers benefit, a new tax benefit that would put more money in the pockets of low-income workers. The new Canada workers benefit builds on the former working income tax benefit, or WITB, to give even more people greater financial benefits from working. Compared with the WITB, the new Canada workers benefit will increase the maximum benefit and raise the income level at which the benefit is entirely phased out. That means now that somebody working under WITB, a low-income worker, would earn up to about $500 more. On an income of $15,000, that is a huge difference.
All together, our government's actions mean almost $1 billion of new support starting in 2019 for low-income workers under the Canada workers benefit. By increasing these financial benefits associated with joining the workforce and staying in the workforce, the Canada workers benefit is proving that the best way to take people out of poverty is through a job.
Our government knows that small business is a key driver in our economy, accounting for 70% of all private sector jobs. I know that in my riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville, from going to the restaurants or financial services or the local garages, how hard those small business people work. That is why over the years and up to this year, we have lowered that small business tax from 11% down to 10% and now to 9%. What I am hearing from my small businesses is that this is terrific. They can now hire more people and they need more people. What all the businesses around my area are asking for is more people. That is because our economy is doing so well.
Our economy has created 800,000 new jobs since we came into government. That is tremendous. What that is doing is fuelling our communities and fuelling our neighbourhoods. We know that our plan, with all of these ingredients, is working. That is what has caused these 800,000 net new jobs. We are supporting small businesses by lowering their taxes.
Last year, we showed leadership by introducing pay equity legislation in federally regulated sectors. We are committed to ensuring that women receive equal pay for work of equal value, again all of this getting back to that so important value of fairness. In many countries this is not possible but here it is and we continue to invest in that value of fairness because that is our competitive edge. However, what we hear from the Conservatives is that they want to back out. They are talking about cuts to infrastructure, cuts to investments, cuts to health care, cuts to education, cuts to our communities and cuts to the hardest-working people in Canada.
We have to give people hope. People are working hard. We want to give them hope. Through our successive budgets that is what we have done. That is what I am hearing from people in my community. They say to continue to provide these incentives and to continue to give them help so that they can invest in their families, invest in our community, invest in our country and continue to make Canada the greatest place on earth.