Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of the residents of Grand Cache, in my wonderful riding of Yellowhead.
People are calling on the government to do one thing: restore fairness to the community. It is a remote and isolated town where everything costs more. While these are exactly the kinds of challenges the northern residents deduction is meant to address, a line on the map that was drawn by a bureaucrat in Ottawa has excluded Grand Cache from the program. My constituents are simply asking for fair treatment. If Grand Cache were reclassified, a typical family with children would save about $1,200, which should be left in its pocket. Exceptions have been made in the past for other remote communities, including, recently, Haida Gwaii in British Columbia.
The petitioners therefore call on the government to include Grand Cache in the northern residents deduction program. I support their call and will continue to advocate on their behalf in the House.