Ottawa’s public service has swelled by roughly 10,000 bureaucrats per year under Trudeau
COVID-19 has shone a light on a fundamental divide within Canada: the growing government bureaucracy and those forced to pay for it. This contrast is illustrated by Statistics Canada’s latest jobs report. The private sector, including the self-employed, has shed 520,400 jobs since COVID-19 hit us, while the number of government jobs across the country…
We have to start demanding that politicians start making some tough choices
Fifty-seven thousand dollars. That’s the average amount each Canadian will owe in provincial and federal government debt by the end of the year. It’s not just the rich or big corporations that will be mopping up this budget mess if politicians don’t take some air out of their bloated budgets. Politicians are already starting to…
Even the National Police Federation, Canada’s largest police union, believes the buyback will do little to curb criminality
By Franco Terrazzano and Kevin Lacey Canadian Taxpayers Federation Here we go again. Ottawa’s budget watchdog is on the trail of another big taxpayer boondoggle in the making with the federal government’s latest gun policy. First, a Liberal government introduced the gun registry in the 1990s. That was supposed to cost $2 million, but, by…
There’s only so many times that you can superglue the same broken mug back together, and there’s only so much debt a country can pile up before there are serious consequences. COVID-19 subsidies were always supposed to be temporary and now it’s time for the feds to set a concrete end date to all this…
Canadian politicians like Chrystia Freeland see tax competition as a “race to the bottom.” But for the rest of us, a global tax cartel will mean an inevitable march toward higher tax bills and more pork for companies with access to politicians. Freeland agreed to the American-led proposal for a global minimum business tax of…
When a new governor general takes the controls as head of state, the routine waste of money at that office needs to stop
It’s a rare event when the stars align in the cosmos of Ottawa to create the perfect opportunity for politicians to save taxpayers some money. That phenomenon is happening now. Ottawa is facing a black hole of debt. It needs to save money, and that signal needs to come from the top. When a new…
It’s unfair to make Albertans struggling through the pandemic to pay for bigger salaries for post-secondary employees
Many bureaucrats and professors have been collecting bigger paycheques during the pandemic, which means bigger bills for struggling families and students at the worst possible time. More than 11,500 university and college employees received a pay raise in 2020, which cost taxpayers and students $29 million, according to freedom of information requests obtained by the…
When you got straight A’s on a report card, it’s a good bet you rushed home from the school bus to show your mom and dad. Maybe they even stuck it on the fridge. But if that report card was covered with F’s, you probably weren’t that eager to bring it up at dinner time.…
The Trudeau government is throwing freedom of expression under the bus so the entertainment and culture lobby can pocket more dough. The proposed law, Bill C-10, opens the door for unelected bureaucrats to put online content under their microscope. These ramifications led Peter Menzies, former vice-chair of Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications, to refer to the…
As the federal government’s debt soars by $424 million per day, Canadians need to be on guard for the Trojan horse of politics: higher taxes on the wealthy and businesses. These taxes won’t balance the budget. But they will make it easier for politicians to get their tax hikes through the city gates. And once…
Babies born on budget day 2021 had more than $28,000 of debt the moment they opened their eyes
By Franco Terrazzano Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Kris Rondolo Generation Screwed Canadian babies born on federal budget day 2021 had more than $28,000 of debt the moment they opened their eyes. That’s each Canadian’s share of the federal government’s $1-trillion debt. And it’s going up. By the time those little ones blow out their candles…
By Franco Terrazzano and Kris Sims Canadian Taxpayers Federation Erin O’Toole’s proposed carbon taxes would cost you more to heat your home, put food on the table and drive to work. The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada broke his promise and announced that, if elected prime minister, he’s going to impose his own…
Canadians can choose to watch virtually anything from anywhere in the world online. And they can share virtually any opinion globally through their cellphone. It’s astonishing freedom. But the federal government sees a problem. Canadians aren’t watching enough of the right stuff and sometimes they say the wrong things. So, the Liberal government introduced Bill…
And just wait until you hear how much the government is spending to cover its debt interest costs. It isn't pretty
If you think the federal government’s so-called historic spending on a national child-care scheme is big, wait until you hear how much the government is spending to cover its debt interest costs. In its 2021 budget, the Justin Trudeau government is promising to spend $30 billion over five years on a national child-care program. That’s…
Sticking future generations with the tab isn’t a winning solution
By Franco Terrazzano and Renaud Brossard Canadian Taxpayers Federation There’s a big difference between making something affordable and playing a shell game with the costs. Unfortunately, the feds are choosing the latter with their new child-care program. The federal 2021 budget allocated $30 billion over the next five years towards a national child care program…
By Franco Terrazzano and Jay Goldberg Canadian Taxpayers Federation It’s one thing to pull out the credit card to pay for new shingles to patch a leaky roof in a storm. It’s another thing to pull out that credit card to buy a new big screen before the rain even stops. That’s what Ottawa is…
The Trudeau government has set Canada on a path to fiscal destruction
By Aaron Wudrick and Franco Terrazzano Canadian Taxpayers Federation The British politician Nigel Lawson once said: “To govern is to choose – to appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.” If Lawson is correct, then the only conclusion to be drawn from Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s federal budget…
Albertans are enduring a tale of two downturns during COVID-19. There’s the very real downturn full of private-sector pain. Then there’s the experience of government employees who have largely been shielded from the downturn. Over the last year, 76,600 private-sector jobs vanished in Alberta, while 5,600 government jobs were added. Since the beginning of 2015,…
Albertans don’t want a provincial sales tax. That much is clear. What’s not clear is why Premier Jason Kenney won’t absolutely take a PST off the table. More than 60 per cent of Albertans do not want a PST, according to a new poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute. Only three per cent of…
They need to continue to tighten their belts like everyone else
Families and businesses have found ways to save money during the pandemic and downturn. Alberta’s universities and colleges can save some money too. With Alberta steamrolling through the $100-billion debt mark this year and the United Conservatives spending more than the New Democrats, there wasn’t much good for taxpayers in the Alberta government’s 2021 budget.…
Alberta’s Budget 2021 blew the roof off spending restraint, leaving taxpayers with a simple question: businesses and families have found ways to save money during the pandemic and downturn, so why is the Alberta government the only place that can’t find savings? To be fair to Finance Minister Travis Toews, he is finding some savings…
Business Council of Alberta that thinks the government should consider a provincial sales tax and carbon tax
More than 90 big-wig business executives think you don’t pay enough taxes. It’s all laid out in a report released by the Business Council of Alberta that thinks the government should consider a provincial sales tax and carbon tax. The BCA’s website refers to itself as “a group of over 90 chief executives from across…
There’s only one way for Albertans to get a fair deal in Canada: fight for it
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made one thing clear: he’s not going to hand Alberta a fair deal on a silver platter. There’s only one way for Albertans to get a fair deal: fight for it. The next step in our fight for fairness is this year’s equalization referendum. The equalization referendum on Oct. 18…
An Alberta Taxpayer Protection Act, recall legislation, and a fair deal for the province within Canada a good place to start
With the Alberta government steamrolling towards a $100-billion debt tab, things aren’t exactly rainbows and lollipops for taxpayers these days. Fortunately, there are three ways MLAs can help taxpayers get ahead in the upcoming legislative session: increase government accountability, find savings at the top of the bureaucratic pyramid and reignite Alberta’s fight for fairness. It’s…
Albertans need tax hikes like they need a hole in the head
Budget 2021 is right around the corner and there’s two commitments taxpayers expect from Finance Minister Travis Toews: no tax hikes and a plan to balance the budget. Albertans need tax hikes like we need a hole in the head. Alberta lost 73,000 jobs over the last year. Businesses can’t afford higher taxes either. About…
One solution to help struggling businesses and families would be to cut property taxes
By Colin Craig Secondstreet.org and Franco Terrazzano Canadian Taxpayers Federation In addition to COVID-19, Canada has two major problems we must grapple with: high unemployment and high government spending. While many families are currently struggling with job losses or lost income, there are signs Canada’s economy could face even more challenges. A recent Canadian Federation…
Biden killing Keystone XL wouldn’t have felt like such a blow if Trudeau hadn't killed Northern Gateway and Energy East first
U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pull the plug on the Keystone XL pipeline is another punch to the gut for Alberta’s economy, but it’s also a good wake up call and provides us with some crucial lessons. The first lesson is straight forward: we need politicians to let businesses build pipelines in Canada. Yanking…
A growing class divide between those who receive a government paycheque and those who pay it
Last year was a surprisingly good year financially for Alberta bureaucrats, unless you were one of the unlucky rubes who doesn’t work for the government. Even though the private sector was shedding jobs by the thousands, many Alberta bureaucrats received pay raises during lockdowns, courtesy of Mr. and Ms. Taxpayer. If that doesn’t seem fair…
The last thing Albertans need right now is a provincial government reaching further into our pockets with higher income taxes. But higher income taxes are exactly what Albertans are getting in 2021, courtesy of Premier Jason Kenney’s sneaky backdoor tax grab known as bracket creep. Bracket creep happens when governments stop indexing tax brackets with…
Albertans have every right to hate the hypocrisy coming from United Conservatives who locked the province down and decided to vacation abroad. The government just plunged Alberta into its second lockdown. Families spent the holidays apart. Businesses shut down and some may never again open their doors. Many workers are taking pay cuts to help…
COVID-19 has shone a light on a fundamental divide within Canada: the growing government bureaucracy and those forced to pay for it. This contrast is illustrated by Statistics Canada’s latest jobs report. The private sector, including the self-employed, has shed 520,400 jobs since COVID-19 hit us, while the number of government jobs across the country…
