When the going gets tough, desperate politicians go shopping for votes.
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That’s the message from the Liberal government’s sales tax holiday announced this week. It takes the GST (and HST in some provinces) off a mish-mash of items from snack food to Christmas trees to booze.
It gives a whole new meaning to retail politics.
We’re all for tax cuts, but they should be done in a rational way. A Fraser Institute report says this is the wrong way to go about it.
“The government’s package creates a holiday on the GST for some items (only for two months) which is a mistake given that the GST is one of the least economically harmful components of the tax mix,” the report says.
Consumption taxes such as the GST are fair in that they tax those who can afford to buy the goods. A millionaire stocking up with a case of Champagne ahead of Christmas will save a lot more than someone who gets in a six-pack of beer for the holiday. As well, retailers will have to reprogram all their bar codes for a program that will last only eight weeks.
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau really wanted to do us a favour, he’d remove the carbon tax, which will increase April 1, 2025. Gas will go up from 17.6 cents per litre to 20.91 cents per litre. Diesel and natural gas will also increase. Trudeau’s so ideologically driven he won’t accept that the carbon tax is harmful.
The feds will also send out $250 cheques to working people. The government says it’s trying to help with affordability. Flooding the economy with more money will simply fuel inflation and push prices higher. And seniors won’t get the cheques.. They’ll go out to those who have worked in 2023 with a net income up to $150,000 and who claimed tax credits for contributions to Canada Pension Plan.
Fair enough, many seniors are comfortably off and don’t need help. But why are lower income seniors deliberately excluded?
The tax break and the $250 cheque bonanza will add another $6.3 million to the federal debt. That’s money we’ll have to borrow.
One way or another, taxpayers are on the hook for this pre-election spending frenzy. They’re being bribed with their own money.