What legislation is before Parliament?

One of the major pieces of legislation expected in the coming weeks will involve the Liberal changes to the capital gains taxes. 

Before her spring budget, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland scrambled to bring in yet another tax hike to pay for her uncontrolled inflationary spending. However nearly six months after the Liberals tabled their budget with the promise to increase capital gains by over 30%, there has been chaos, uncertainty and confusion.

While the Liberals want you to believe this is a tax “only the ultra-rich”, it is anything but.

• This is:
  • A tax on food
  • A tax on homebuilding
  • A tax on retirement
  • A tax on pensions
  • A tax on doctors
  • A tax on pharmacists
  • A tax on truckers
  • A tax on small business owners

Taxing farmers drives up food costs. Taxing doctors means it’s harder to find one. Taxing homebuilders means fewer homes. And taxing small businesses means fewer paycheques.

Certainly there has been growing opposition from doctors, small business owners and Canadians saving for their retirements. Conservatives called for a study of the impact of this substantial tax increase at the Standing Committee on Finance (FINA). Those hearings are ongoing and you can follow them here. Stephanie asked many constituents who had contacted her about this issue to consider a formal submission to FINA, and she thanks those of you who were able to do so.

Financial experts have also raised concerns. According to economist Jack Mintz, the increase in the capital gains tax rate will hurt the middle class and our economy;  reducing Canada’s GDP by $90 billion; real per capita GDP by 3 percent; its capital stock by $127 billion; and employment by 414,000. (More details on the state of Canada’s economy are below.)

Needless to say, Stephanie and her Conservative colleagues will be voting against this tax hike.

And, it is why Official Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised that within 60 days of becoming Prime Minister, he will name a Tax Reform Task Force of entrepreneurs, inventors, farmers and workers to design a Bring it Home Tax Cut that will:

• allow workers to bring home more of each dollar they earn to reward work;
  • bring home production and paycheques, by making Canada the best place to invest, hire and make things;
  • bring home fairness by reducing the share of taxes paid by the poor and middle class while cutting tax-funded corporate welfare and cracking down on overseas tax havens; and
  • cut the paperwork and bureaucracy in the tax system by at least 20%;

Common Sense Conservatives will unlock the potential of our strivers, inventors, builders, entrepreneurs and workers to restore Canada’s promise. Those who go sleepless nights mortgaging their homes wondering how they’ll pay employees will have their success rewarded and not vilified. Instead of turning workers against business owners, we should turn workers INTO business owners.

We will be a country where hard work earns powerful paycheques and pensions that buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe neighbourhoods.

Economic Vandalism:

• After nine years of Justin Trudeau, Canada is on track for its worst decline in living standards in 40 years. (Fraser Institute, May 2024)
• Under Trudeau, Canada has had the worst growth in income per person (or GDP per capita) of any Prime Minister since the 1930s (Financial Post, May 2023).
• After nine years of Justin Trudeau, 9 in 10 middle-class families pay more in income tax (Fraser Institute, January 2022)
• Under Justin Trudeau, Canada has had the slowest GDP per capita growth in the G7 since 2015. (OECD, National Accounts, 2023).
• The OECD calculated that Canada’s economic growth will be the worst of nearly 40 advanced countries this decade and the worst of those same countries for the next three decades. (OECD, 2021).
• Since 2019, the last year before COVID, Canada’s GDP per capita is down by 2%, while America’s GDP per capita has increased by 8% (Financial Times, May 2024).
• Alberta is the only province in Canada that exceeds the US average economic output of $76,000. While Ontario has a per-person level of economic output similar to Alabama, the Maritimes are below Mississippi, and Quebec and Manitoba lag behind West Virginia. (The Hub, June 2023).
• In fact, the economy of Texas is now bigger than the entire GDP of Canada. (GDP, current dollars, OECD PPP 2023, Statistics Canada and Bureau of Economic Analysis).
• Our collapse in productivity has become so severe that Canada’s productivity gap with the U.S. now stands at about $20,000 per person a year. (RBC Economics, June 2024).
• When you divide the amount of business investment by the number of workers in the country, you see that in 2023, Canadian workers got 58 cents investment for every dollar a US worker got – and only 65 cents for every dollar workers in the OECD got. (C.D. Howe, November 2023).
• Trudeau’s tax hike will mean that Canada’s marginal tax rate on capital will be one of the highest in the developed world, behind only Denmark and Chile (Trevor Tombe, April 2024).