Tax cuts to dominate first Tory budget (Canada)

[ConcernedCanuk]

.
.
.

Tax cuts to dominate first Tory budget

Apr. 30, 2006. 07:49 PM
SANDRA CORDON
CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — Personal and business taxes, as well as spending programs, will all be cut in Tuesday's federal budget as the minority Conservatives move quickly to put their own stamp on Canada's finances.

/snip/

Top of the agenda? Tax reductions — primarily Harper's controversial plan to cut the GST by one percentage point, at an annual cost of the treasury of about $5 billion.

/snip/

Watch for a one percentage point cut in the middle income tax rates of 22 per cent and 26 per cent, predicts Conservative MP Garth Turner.

/snip/

Already 15 climate change programs have been eliminated, and it's expected that some other environmental spending will be cut Tuesday. Critics complain that one new initiative trumpeted for its environmental benefit — the tax credit for bus and subway riders — will in fact do little to fight air pollution by convincing drivers to leave their cars at home. There could be other cuts as well. For example, the fate of an earlier $5 billion Liberal program to help aboriginal peoples is unknown.

MORE

Wow - as if paying 1.14 instead of 1.15 for a dollars worth of goods is really gonna help us poor people

That's all that will happen by dropping the GST from 7% to 6% - we still pay 8% GST on top of that - so taxes on goods and services will drop from 15 cents on the dollar to 14 cents

whoopdeefeckingdo

and a one percent drop in the income tax level for the lower end of the income scale ain't gonna buy squat either

and as for ignoring our environmental responsibilities

sheet!

dunno what to say . . .

(sigh)

[Canuckistanian]

1. So transparent

Try to get Kyoto killed saying that it wasn't "significant enough", then turn around and cut environmental programs that would achieve the same ends.

There's no hope for these guys. They're corporatists and global-warming deniers, all of them.

When's the next confidence vote? Don't budget votes automatically count as significant confidence votes?

As for the tax cuts - as you so eleoquently say - whoopdefeckingdo.

[Kagemusha]

2. I assume you mean, still pay 8% provincial sales tax?

Just checking. I appreciate what you mean by the math there.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. oops - yeah -the 8% PST, - GST is 7% right now

.
.
.

just a wee bit late to edit the original post tho

my bad

[depakid]

3. Say goodbye to your balanced budget

and your responsibly run economy.

[HuffleClaw]

4. this is an OOOOOLD conservative trick

screw things that the liberals will have to fix after the next election. harper KNOWS he's already gone too far and is living on borrowed time. but he ALSO knows the public doesn't want another election any time soon. yet anyways. he's on a real tight rope. only question is how soon before he falls.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Well, all the snow's going to melt, so it won't look like Canada anyway.

:evilfrown:

[Vinca]

7. This is like deja vu all over again.

Canada has a surplus, a conservative is elected, taxes cut. Sound familiar? Don't Canadian taxes pay for Canadian health care?? I'd be happy as a clam to pony up a couple of bucks here and there to be able to go to the doctor. Health coverage for my family would be $12,000+ a year with a $5,000 deductible if we could afford it. I can't imagine I'd pay anywhere near $17,000 a year more in taxes if I moved north of the border. I hope your conservative, tax-cutting government doesn't decide to turn your health coverage over to the corporations.

[dufrenne]

8. caunck

speaking as a fellow canuck, I don't know where CP gets off saying the gst cut is controversial. That tax (which was actually first instituted by Reagan buddy, Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney), is one of the most reviled things in all of Canada - popular with almost no one. It's the one thing both left and right pretty much agree with. In fact, Chretien's failed campaign promises years ago about lowering or getting rid of the tax hurt him in polls. No one will be shedding a tear regarding the GST. And please...enough American comparisons here. Trying to liken Harper to Bush is a futile exercise. The most right-wing politician in Canada is probably to the left of Nader. Now, I know that's an exagerration, but there is some truth in it. A Harper minority gov't is something I don't fear and is actually a breath of fresh air from 12 years of corrupt Chretien rule. Will it be a long term choice for me? No...I'll wait for the results of the Liberal leadership race, but I ain't sweatin' up here in Canada.

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Chretien kept us out of the Iraq massacre

.
.
.

whatever else - I am forever grateful for his refusal to join the USA's genocide

and 1 percent off of everything we buy is squat

and it ain't just ME comparing Harper to Bush

- wake up

please

[mike923]

9. I was hopeful that the first order of business....

would be the overturn the idiotic law that you can't drink a beer while you are fishing.

Thats UnAmerican!