Good morning, everyone. It’s great to be back here at Dinty’s, especially with so many familiar faces in the crowd. Many of the families that are here today were also here in May of last year when we first shared our plan to help restore fairness for Canada’s middle class. I want to thank all the families for coming out again and for taking the time to chat with me and get me caught up on how they’re doing. I was particularly looking forward to meet Charlotte who, I am told, has closely followed federal politics over the last months. 

I know that my own kids grow too quickly, but seeing all the young people again reminds me how kids change over a year. Of course, that’s what kids do and every parent knows it.

You go to soccer practice on Tuesday night and the cleats fit, but you get to the game on Saturday morning and all of a sudden you’re scrambling to find the closest Canadian Tire, with fingers crossed that they have the next size up. Unfortunately, for too many Canadian families, things like new shoes and healthy groceries, and summer camp, and class trips are a real strain on the family budget.  And if you’re struggling to make it into the middle class, it’s even harder.

That’s why, 14 months ago, I came here and promised Canadians that things would change. That a government led by me would stop sending child benefit cheques to... millionaires. That we would do more to help strengthen and grow Canada’s middle class, including offering families more help with the high cost of raising kids. And that we would do it by introducing a new program – the Canada Child Benefit – that would be simpler, tax-free, and more generous for nine out of ten Canadian families. Today, we are delivering on that promise. The first payments of the new Canada Child Benefit have now been made.

And I want to spend a moment to talk about what this means for Canadian families.  For families like Geneviève and her two beautiful children, William et Nicola.  Geneviève is a single mom.  She earns less than $50,000 a year.  This year, William is going into grade 2 and Nicola is starting kindergarten.  It’s an exciting time for the family, but it also means double the back-to-school costs.  So that she can work and so the kids can have a fun summer, both Nicola and William are enrolled in a day camp over these months. That’s an additional expense. And I talked about soccer earlier, William plays at his school.  It’s less expensive than a private club but there are still extra costs for Geneviève to pay. 

All of these little things -- things that we do to make sure that our kids have great childhoods – they add up. And for someone like Geneviève who is already finding it tough to make ends meet, a more generous and tax-free benefit like the CCB will make a real difference. For Geneviève and her family, the CCB means $848 each and every month, tax-free, starting today.

That’s who we’re doing this for. For hard-working parents like Genevieve – or grandparents, like Paul and Lise – who don’t ask for anything but a real and fair chance at success for their kids and the opportunity to build a better life for their grandkids. And we’re doing it for the hundreds of thousands of Canadian kids for whom the Canada Child Benefit will be a ladder out of poverty and launching pad for the brighter future they deserve. 

For me, today is about more than “promise made, promise kept.” I know that the CCB will make a real difference in the lives of millions of Canadian families, and it’s their future success that we’re celebrating today.

Thanks again for being here. I’ll be happy to take your questions now.