The Liberal government is making changes to the Canada Child Benefit two years ahead of time.

MP Anthony Rota says the benefit is increasing annually to keep up with the cost of living.

He says it’s giving parents more money every month for necessities.

“For a child under six it comes out to around $6,400 and for children between 6 and 17 it comes out to $5,400,” he says. “We had planned on indexing it, that was the promise made in the budget. We decided to do it two years ahead of time because as costs go up you want to make sure you cover what those increases are.”

In Nipissing-Timiskaming, nearly 16,000 children are receiving the benefit, totaling $58 million annually.