Loose lips shink ships – especially when it comes to a dreaded home equity tax..Blacklock’s Reporter says the Liberal Party yesterday did not comment after an Atlantic candidate was quoted as warning cabinet will “unfortunately” have to tax home equity..Jason Hickey, Liberal candidate in New Brunswick Southwest, made his remarks in a video recording distributed by the Conservative Party..“For anyone selling their primary residence, you do make money on that so, unfortunately, you will have to pay tax on that,” said Hickey..“I wouldn’t agree to that either, but it’s what we have to do.”.Conservatives would not say when the videoconference was recorded, though Hickey made reference to the Liberal platform released September 1..Principle residences currently are not taxed..“Justin Trudeau has claimed that despite a promise in his own platform Liberals have no plan to tax the sale of your home,” said Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.)..“However now we know the truth.”.The prime minister on Tuesday said a re-elected Liberal cabinet would never tax Canadians’ home equity, but the New Brunswick candidate’s remarks were unexplained..“We want to protect people who have equity in their house for many years for their retirement,” said Trudeau..“We’re not going to eliminate the capital gains exemption for primary residences..“We will not do that. I am happy to declare very strongly and clearly we will not be doing that.”.Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 2020 funded a $250,000 report by pro-tax researchers at the University of British Columbia entitled Wealth And Generational Inequity In Canadian Housing. The report has not been publicly released to date..Evan Siddall, then-CEO of the Crown corporation, testified April 2 at the Commons finance committee that tax policy was not CMHC’s business. Siddall had publicly claimed any consideration of an equity tax was fake news..“Do you favour or think it’s a worthy undertaking to study the question of taxing capital gains and would this be your advice to this government to explore it?” asked Conservative MP Pat Kelly (Calgary Rocky Ridge)..“I was accused of lying, in fact, and a media cover-up on this,” replied Siddall..“The question of tax policy is not for us. It is for Finance Canada.”.Siddall earlier criticized Blacklock’s disclosure of the equity tax study as “a non-story,” “untrue,” “inaccurate, “irresponsible,” “substandard,” “argumentative,” “horrible” and “poor.”.But subsequent Access To Information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation confirmed Siddall personally contacted researchers to complete the tax study.
