The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) applauded the federal government’s decision to limit alcohol tax increases to 2% this year and next year. “Cheers to the fact that the tax won’t be going up as much on April 1,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano in a press release. “Canadians have told the government not to raise alcohol taxes and it’s nice to see the government take a small step in that direction.” The escalator tax was brought in by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017. It increases the taxes on alcoholic beverages every year on April 1 without a vote in Parliament. The CTF said alcohol taxes are about 50% when charges from all levels of government are included. While the alcohol tax will go up by 2%, it would have increased by 5% had the Canadian government not relented. “The escalator tax is undemocratic because our members of Parliament should vote before jacking up taxes,” said CTF British Columbia Director Carson Binda. “The cap is nice, but the escalator tax needs to be eliminated.” Calls were made in 2023 to scrap Trudeau’s planned alcohol tax hike after MPs voted in favour of cancelling the increase in a shocking result.READ MORE: CHEERS! MPs vote in favour of cancelling 'undemocratic' 6.3% alcohol tax riseThe Liberals were planning to raise the alcohol tax by 6.3% to adhere to the escalator tax. However, MPs voted in favour of a motion calling on the Canadian government to cancel the increase by 170 to 149.
