Good morning everyone. Thank you for being with us today. It’s such a pleasure to be back in Edmonton, to be here at Telus World of Science. I’m pleased to be joined by Randy Boissonnault, MP for Edmonton Centre. Thanks for being here Randy and all your leadership both in service to your community and as my special representative for LGBT2Q issues across Canada.

Now, for those who’ve never been here, let me tell you, this is a really cool place. I’m a bit of a nerd, so this is a great way for me to spend a Saturday morning. It looks like I’m not alone in that thinking. There are tons of families here this morning, learning about science and innovation, visiting exhibits, and watching IMAX movies. As parents, we know how important it is to find ways to keep the kids busy when they’re not in school, on the weekends, and throughout the summer. Having a little extra money at the end of the month makes family outings to places like the Telus World of Science possible. And we believe that families should be able to make these important memories together.  

It’s why our government introduced a new measure called the Canada Child Benefit. Many of the families here today will have already seen more generous cheques each and every month to help with the costs of raising kids, because we know it’s expensive, and we want to take a bit of that weight off the shoulders of Canadian families. You see, under the old system, there were multiple, separate child benefits that parents had to claim. Now it’s all consolidated into a single tax-free benefit. It’s more efficient for parents that way and, what’s more, not only did we significantly increase the funding for the CCB, we’ve made this important benefit dependent of need. No more child benefit cheques going to millionaires. Now we give the most help to the families who need it. In fact, nine out of ten Canadian families get more money under this new system, and we know that that makes a real difference. In fact, child poverty will decrease by 40% across the country, which will help 300,000 kids.

Some parents told us that they used their cheque to pay for daycare, while others put it towards summer camps, spent it on groceries or even paid for family outings to museums or to centres like this one. And that has been the goal from the start. Raising children is costly, and we are pleased to help parents who need it the most.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. We’re a government committed to helping the middle class and those working hard to join it. And the CCB is just one way we’re proud to deliver.