Finance committee  Thinking about the people in the riding you mentioned, people close to retirement age, it is important for the Canadian economy as we go forward to make sure that we make use of the resources that we have in our economy. One is the wealth of experience, ability, and attitude of o

Finance committee  Yes, there is certainly a possibility of integrating the basic amount—an earned income tax benefit like the WITB, or the Canada workers benefit—with, say, the GST tax credit to make a comprehensive package for lower-income workers that would be clear, would provide incentives to

Finance committee  I think that's right. It is a concern when different taxes and different benefits are stacked on top of each other such that you end up with effective tax rates on marginal income that can get quite high in some circumstances, so we should always pay attention to that. That's one

Finance committee  The evidence shows pretty clearly that when you provide this kind of bonus to people who join the labour market, more people will join the labour market. People are pretty responsive to this kind of benefit. If you were to extend the range over which people still receive some of

Finance committee  The member is talking about the rate at which the benefit is phased out among those who are earning a bit more money. The current working income tax benefit is phased out at about 15%, I think, for both types of families that are considered. The new Canada workers benefit reduces

Finance committee  It does depend a bit on one's personal circumstance, of how many non-refundable tax credits one has. The basic amount these days is in the range of $12,000, so it's quite likely that many people who are in that $20,000 range might be facing income tax on their marginal dollars. F

Finance committee  Over that range, you'd be simultaneously paying income tax and your benefit would be shrinking as you earn more dollars. So your basic amount is not phased out, you'd get to keep that. It is the question of you starting to pay income tax at the same time as you are seeing your Ca

Finance committee  Yes, this is a good focus for legislators in terms of looking at that. The member asked an important question, to see whether these thresholds that are in the proposed legislation are automatically indexed to inflation every year. My experience with the existing working income ta

Finance committee  Thank you very much.

Finance committee  Thanks for the question. It raises the important question of making sure that people are aware of the benefits that are there and how they are structured, and of understanding how we can best make sure that people who earn benefits get the benefits they deserve. As Mr. Albas has

Finance committee  The member characterizes this correctly: the idea would be to consider only one's own individual income. It's not an idea that I would advocate unconditionally right now. It's one that I think is worthy of some study and consideration. The member's idea of perhaps making it a def

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Easter. My name is Kevin Milligan. I am a professor of economics at the Vancouver School of Economics. I've been asked to speak specifically about the new Canada workers benefit. I've been studying the impact of tax benefits for modest-income workers f