(Ottawa) Canadian taxation penalizes work, maintains the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, who urges the Trudeau government to correct this harmful situation for the economy as of the next budget.
The Canadian tax authorities are far too greedy with workers who accumulate hours, either to improve their lot or simply to make ends meet because of inflation which continues to wreak havoc, according to Mr. Poilievre.
At a time when businesses are having to deal with a shortage of workers across the country, the Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, must imperatively throw ballast by reducing the tax burden on taxpayers in order to reward hard work, argues he.
Mme Freeland is currently working on her third budget since taking over from Bill Morneau as finance minister in August 2020. In principle, this budget must be tabled in the House of Commons by the end of March.
In an interview with The Press Before embarking on a tour that will take him to Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Quebec, the Conservative leader outlined his party’s main budget demands.
We need a reform and a tax reduction to encourage work.
Pierre Poilievre
We have a labor shortage partly because it doesn’t pay to work. Work no longer pays in Canada. If people earn another dollar in salary, they pay too much tax or see a reduction in their benefits. The system as it is today penalizes work. We have to change that to make work pay more,” said the Conservative leader.
Mr. Poilievre cites as an example a report from the Department of Finance which highlights the case of a single mother of three children who sees some of her benefits reduced as soon as she receives a salary that exceeds $60,000. “If that mom makes another extra dollar, she loses 80 cents of that dollar in taxes and reduced benefits. No one wants to work longer hours under these conditions. I often meet people who tell me: ‟I work harder. I even took a second job. But it doesn’t change anything and I haven’t improved my situation.” So, we have to change that.”
Back to balance
According to Pierre Poilievre, Minister Freeland must more than ever specify the timetable for a return to a balanced budget. Since coming to power in 2015, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have multiplied budgets written in red ink, running a record deficit of more than $320 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ottawa projects the deficit will hit $36 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31.
“We must counter Liberal inflation by eliminating the inflationary deficits that have increased the cost of living the fastest in 40 years. Justin Trudeau has doubled our national debt. He alone has increased the debt burden more than all other prime ministers combined since 1867,” he said.
Canadians can no longer afford Justin Trudeau’s expenses. I want him to reverse these inflationary policies.
Pierre Poilievre
In an interview, Mr. Poilievre noted that former finance minister Bill Morneau proves him right in a book about his years in politics, in which he claims that the Trudeau government spent too much during the pandemic.
” It’s interesting. That’s what I’ve been saying for three years. Now he agrees, and the Governor of the Bank of Canada also says there has been too much spending during the pandemic. But we continue to overspend, even after the end of the pandemic. Spending during the pandemic was not fair to help people during the crisis. Payments were made to prisoners or people who had died,” he noted, noting examples from Auditor General Karen Hogan’s latest report.
In her report, the auditor estimates “that overpayments totaling $4.6 billion” were paid under the emergency programs that were set up.
“The waste under this government is unprecedented,” said the Conservative leader.
“The most incredible thing is that Justin Trudeau managed to double our national debt without improving our health care system. After seven years of Justin Trudeau’s government, the health care system is worse than ever. »
To avoid another increase in federal government spending, Mr. Poilievre returns to the charge with his proposal that Ottawa must find a dollar of savings for every dollar of new spending.