F is for Fiscal Responsibility

First of all, we would like to make a comment on the Conservative Party website, niggardly information is available which is not surprising considering Mr. Harper’s secretive untransparent method of governing to date. However, we did manage to obtain some information as below. Each of these are quoted directly from the various party websites and we are not, here, skewing the “facts”. See end notes for our comments.

Quoting the conservative website:

Stephen Harper’s Conservative Government is focused on the economy, supporting hard-working Canadians and their families, and completing and securing the economic recovery.

Today, we introduced the Next Phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan: a low-tax plan for jobs and growth.

As part of that plan, we will:

· work to keep taxes low

· undertake additional targeted investments to support jobs and growth

· control government spending to stay on track to eliminate the deficit

· not cut transfer payments for crucial services like healthcare and education

· not give in to the Ignatieff/NDP/Bloc Québécois Coalition’s demands to impose massive tax hikes

Quoting the Liberal site:

As part of our plan, a Liberal government will work with the provinces and territories to enhance the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) with:

· A gradual expansion of the benefits provided by the CPP; and

· A new Secure Retirement Option that will offer Canadians a simple, voluntary, tax-deductible savings option backed by the trusted, publicly-run CPP.

A Liberal government will also provide a $700-million annual boost to the Guaranteed Income Supplement to reduce poverty among seniors, especially women and seniors with disabilities.

To help workers left out in the cold when their employer goes bankrupt, Mr. Ignatieff also committed to greater protection for those collecting long-term disability benefits, and to create a Stranded Pension Agency to give Canadians a new and safe option to manage their private pensions after corporate bankruptcies.

And the NDP site:

Jack Layton’s plan will:

· Drop the small business tax rate from 11% to 9% - a 2 percentage point tax break that will help create jobs.

· Create a Job Creation Tax Credit for employers of up to $4,500 per new hire.

· Extend the Accelerated Capital Costs Allowance for the next four years.

· Restore the current Corporate Income Tax rate to 2008 levels and ensure Canada’s corporate tax rate always remains below the tax rate in the USA.

What we find in our friends over at CBC is a nasty way of slanting any story in favour of the reigning party, currently the Conservatives. Regardless of the reigning power there is an awful lot of sneering at any NDP initiative or story. Is it any wonder that Canadians have a really unclear understanding or appreciation for what the NDP want for them?

The editors of this blog would like to make a final comment, for tonight at least, about “fiscal responsibility”. We do not care how much initiatives cost the taxpayer if the taxpayer is getting value for the initiative. We would like to see the tax collection be more equitably distributed. Statistics Canada reveals that some 85% of the federal tax dollars are brought in by individual tax payers. Less than 15% comes from corporate taxes. That should blow your socks off!

The one-tenth of Canadian taxfilers who were in the highest earnings bracket provided more than one-half of the revenue from federal personal income tax in 2002, according to a new study. In addition, their share of the tax pie has been increasing since 1990.

In 1990, this 10% of taxfilers accounted for 46.0% of total federal personal income tax; by 2002, this group accounted for 52.6%. This increase reflects faster income growth and a smaller reduction in effective tax rates for this group relative to others.