The letter below is as submitted. The parts in black were printed - the parts below in RED were not published.

The value of Child Tax Benefit, the most visible federal program to address child poverty, has teeter-tottered up and down since 1985. Without inflation adjustments, the value of this support erodes each year. This erosion is quiet, insidious, attracting no media or public attention - classic "Social Policy by Stealth". This downward trend has been off-set on occasion by ad-hoc increases. These pre-election increases are greeted with fan-fare, press-releases and bloated boasts about government compassion for children.

The casual observer is left with an impression of increased support for children based on much ballyhooed additions to spending unaware that increases were swamped by secretive inflation induced cut-backs.

The current Child Tax Benefit is now worth about $1 billion dollars less than the spending in 1984 (after adjusting for inflation). The poorest of children get less now than they did in 1984, yet the only public announcements have been of increases in support not reductions. How did this happen? The sporadic hyped increases were no match for the inexorable silent cuts, courtesy inflation.

The Government M.P.s' response to the private members bill is defense of the indefensible. The government proudly points to its increase in spending for children of $850 million without acknowledging that inflation will make the increase temporary. Full-indexation would make permanent this otherwise temporary increase in support. Full-indexation would not increase real spending, just stop the erosion.

Members assert that indexing the Child Benefits would necessitate indexing the whole tax system, which we can't afford. Yet, full-indexation of the seniors benefit did not require changes to the whole tax system.

The government has left the impression that advocates support their stand. Nothing could be further from the truth. Campaign 2000 has been resolute in support of full-indexation. The Caledon Institute's Ken Battle has stated that indexation is the Achilles' heal of the Child Tax Benefit.

Inflation induced general tax increases are deceitful yet politically clever; they generate revenue increases without the inconvenience of announcing a tax increase. Government coffers grow without the general public being aware. The same magic works for the Child Benefit, but it takes a particularly odious cynicism to use this ploy to erode support for poor children masked by illusionary increases while rhetorically crowing about children "our most precious resource."

This government, like predecessors, points to the current ad-hoc increase, $850 million, as a measure of their commitment to children - teeter-totter up. Secure that most will not know that this replaces funds removed by inflation - teeter-totter down. They have promised to double the increase in this mandate to $1.7 billion, just about equaling the impact of a decade of de-indexation, at $160 million per year.

Liberal members trust that we won't remember their fine words about indexing the GST Credit made while safely in the opposition. "… there is no reason not to fully index the protection for the poor …. …The Liberal Members cannot support this Conservative attempt to increase taxes on the poor."

What of Ms. St. Jacque's private members bill? Will M.P.'s vote for security for children or political expediency? Granted, for politicians the stealth of de-indexation, facilitating pre-election illusions of a helping hand, is hard to give up.

With full-indexation, the proposed Child Tax Benefit could begin a serious and long over-due effort to address child poverty. Without indexation, the hyped illusion of progress hides support levels which see-saw up and down.

Take the Child Tax Benefit off the teeter-totter. Low-income children deserve real, sustained increases in purchasing power not illusions.

Richard Shillington
March 24, 1998

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