The Trudeau government has a one-page playbook: take more money from taxpayers.Consider the capital gains tax hike. “Our government is delivering tax fairness for Canadians,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said about her capital gains tax hike. But this isn’t about tax fairness. It’s about taking as much money from Canadians as the government can get away with. If this was really about realigning the tax system, then someone’s taxes would be going down. But for most Canadians, taxes are only going up.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just hiked his carbon and alcohol tax. He also announced a new streaming tax that will make it more expensive for Canadians to listen to our favourite music or watch our favourite movies and TV shows. And the feds are again taking more money from workers’ paycheques with payroll tax hikes. A worker making $73,200 or more will pay $5,104 in payroll taxes this year — a $347 increase.If Trudeau or Freeland are worried lower- and middle-income Canadians pay too much tax compared to the rich, then there’s an obvious solution: cut taxes that hurt ordinary taxpayers most. The government could increase the tax-free portion of our incomes, or it could cut sales taxes, small business taxes or the tax rates on lower income brackets. At least that’s what the Liberal government did at the beginning of its reign. In 2016, when the Trudeau government hiked the top income tax rate, it also cut the tax rate on the second income bracket. But this time around, it’s just higher taxes. Here’s some more government spin that doesn’t pass the sniff test:“Canada could finance these critical investments by taking on more debt, but that would place an unfair burden on younger generations,” Freeland said. “Fiscal responsibility matters.”It’s younger generations of Canadians who will be making payments on this government’s debt for the rest of their lives.When the Trudeau government took power, the debt was $616 billion. This year, the debt will total more than $1.2 trillion. That means the Trudeau government will have doubled the debt in nine years. This government has proven repeatedly that it couldn’t care less about balancing the budget. Even after the massive capital gains tax hike, Trudeau and Freeland are still running a $40-billion deficit this year. The capital gains tax hike is expected to cost taxpayers $6.9 billion in 2024. With Trudeau spending $535 billion this year, he’ll burn through that extra capital gains tax cash in less than a week. If the government cared about balancing the budget or making the rich pay more, then it would make rich multinational corporations pay for their own factories. Instead, the feds put taxpayers on the hook for about $30 billion to multinational corporations like Honda, Volkswagen, Stellantis and Northvolt. The government spent $11.2 billion on corporate subsidies in 2022, according to the Fraser Institute. That’s 62% more than the feds will bring in this year through the capital gains tax hike. With the Liberals running massive deficits, all Canadians should be concerned that if they get away with this capital gains tax hike, they’ll keep looking for new ways to take more money from taxpayers. The Liberals didn’t run on a capital gains tax hike during the last election. The New Democrats did. The NDP also ran on higher income taxes, business taxes, windfall taxes and a wealth tax. The Trudeau government is set to have one more budget before the next scheduled election. Any guess how many new taxes will be imposed?The capital gains tax hike won’t make life more affordable, but it will hurt doctors, job creators and people getting ready to retire. It won’t fix the broken budget, but it will encourage more wasteful spending. Canadians shouldn’t let the government get away with this money grab, or any other. Franco Terrazzano is the Federal Director and Kris Sims is the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
