NUPGE's
national secretary-treasurer looks at the long-term impact on
government revenues and public services of the Harper government's new
Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs). 'How are you going to buy your own
health care with $400?' he asks.
By Larry Brown
National Secretary-Treasurer
National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE)
Ottawa
(30 Nov. 2009) - Everyone knows the Conservative government doesn’t
like taxes. Prime Minister Harper has even been quoted as saying, “I
don't believe that any taxes are good taxes.”
Yet while almost every Canadian grumbles about taxes, most people know that if they don’t pay taxes they are going to have to give up things like public health care, toll-free roads, safe food and education – all of these and thousands more vital services come from our taxes.
Tax cuts are a way for conservative governments to ‘Govern from the grave.’ A government that wants to weaken the public sector can cut taxes and then saddle the next government with inadequate income to provide any improvement in public services.
Most people now understand that for all the tax cuts they have supposedly seen – the never-ending parade of tax cuts over the last couple of decades – they have not really benefited personally at all. Almost every personal tax cut favours the already wealthy. If personal tax cuts were so great we’d all be rich. They don’t work that way, though.
