• Assistance to Families with Children.
• Canada Child Tax Benefit/National Child Benefit.
• Extending Benefits to Modest- and Middle-Income Families
• Significant Benefits for Families.

Assistance to Families with Children

The 1999 budget builds on measures introduced in previous budgets to provide additional assistance for families with children through the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB). The CCTB has two components: a base benefit and a supplement for low-income families. The supplement is an integral part of the National Child Benefit system (NCB), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative to support families and reduce child poverty.

• The CCTB ensures that most taxpayers with children pay less tax than individuals with similar incomes but no children.

• The NCB ensures that low-income parents do not lose income supports and services when moving from welfare to the workforce.

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Canada Child Tax Benefit/National Child Benefit

The 1998 budget committed an additional $850-million federal contribution to the NCB, to be delivered in two $425-million investments in July 1999 and July 2000, bringing the federal investment in the NCB to $1.7 billion.

• The 1999 budget sets out the design for the $850-million increase in assistance, agreed to by federal and provincial governments. Under this design, low-income families would receive an increase of $350 per child in the NCB supplement.

• The design also increases the maximum level of income at which the NCB supplement benefits are provided from $25,921 to $29,590. This will allow for a more gradual phase-out of benefits and will provide more money to modest-income families to support their children

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Extending Benefits to Modest- and Middle-Income Families

The 1999 budget proposes to allocate an additional $300 million in July 2000 to enhance CCTB benefits for modest- and middle-income families.

• This will be done through an increase in the income threshold at which CCTB base benefits start to be reduced from $25,921 to $29,590.

• This measure will provide increased child benefits to two million modest- and middle-income families.

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Significant Benefits for Families

Total federal support for families through the CCTB has increased by $2 billion through the measures in the 1997, 1998 and 1999 budgets and will reach an annual level of support close to $7 billion by July 2000. This investment provides substantial benefits to families. By July 2000:

• the maximum CCTB benefits will reach $1,975 for the first child and $1,775 for each additional child;

• a typical two-child family with family income of $20,000 will receive $3,750 in CCTB benefits compared to $2,540 in 1996, an increase of $1,210 or 48 per cent; and

• a family with two children and an income of $50,000 will receive $1,020 in CCTB benefits compared to $836 in 1998, an increase of $184 or 22 per cent for that family.

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