UCCB cheques: useful policy or pre-election tactic?

Mom and Dad may know best, but do they know how much they're getting?

The first of the Conservative government's retroactive Universal Child Care Benefit payments were mailed out this week, though the extent to which they can boost families' budgets — and perhaps the country's — remains unclear.

When the government introduced the reviewed UCCB rates, it also eliminated the non-refundable Child Tax Credit. The new UCCB payments are taxable, meaning that a parent making $50,000 in a province like Ontario may keep as little as $13.18 per month of the money they received back from the government. 

Minister of State for Social Development Candice Bergen defended the government's plan. 

"At the end of the day, every family will have more money in their pockets," she told The House, adding that "very few families" used the now-defunct Child Tax Credit.

The government said that the cheques, which total $3 billion, would help stimulate the economy without negatively affecting the projected budget surplus.

But numbers released by the parliamentary budget officer on Wednesday suggest that Canada will be in a deficit this year, despite the government's promise to have a balanced budget for 2015.

Bergen defended the Conservative fiscal plan, saying "this wouldn't be the first time we disagree with the PBO, but we are on track."

Christmas in July, or a nine-month loan?

Critics have noted the timing of the handouts, calling them strategic, pre-election goodie bags to encourage families to vote Conservative in the fall.

Bergen denied that the timing of the announcement was related to the upcoming election.

"We're really happy to talk about our policies and talk about the good things that we're doing, and if Canadians see that as a benefit and they vote for us, that's what should happen," she said. 

"Good policies and good government should be re-elected."

Bergen also touched on the NDP's proposed nation-wide child care program, saying that it doesn't cater to the needs of all Canadian families.

"I'm thinking of families that work shift work, families that live in very, very rural parts of the country, who use another family member, or stay-at-home moms or dads," she said. 

"So the whole 'let's just create a big bureaucratic day care system is a one-size-fits-all [solution]. We believe families should decide."