Canadian CANNAINVESTOR Magazine July / August 2019 | Page 193

There is always a transition problem when you want to get rid of a policy that is bad for the economy or for Canadians as a whole, but that still benefits some groups. It’s inevitable for example that if you want to get rid of a tax credit, some people who benefitted from it will be worse off.

But that’s just an illustration of the more general problem with our big government. Parties are trying all the time to please some groups, and buy their support, at the expense of the rest of the population. That’s what all the other parties do with supply management in agriculture for example. That’s the policy that forces you to pay hundreds of dollars more per year for dairy, poultry and eggs, because we have a cartel system in these sectors that benefit producers.

I have said we should abolish it, but with a transition period so that the producers can adapt to the new open and free market situation. We will also buy their production quotas, so that nobody who played by the rules suddenly loses everything they’ve invested.

It’s the same problem you’re describing with losing inefficient tax credits. My solution of course is to review all tax credits and abolish those that don’t serve any crucial purpose apart from buying the support of some groups. And use the money saved to lower taxes to everyone. When you abolish only one or two tax credits and you don’t do anything else, there are obvious losers. But if you do a comprehensive tax reform, and you lower taxes at the same time, you can build support for it because almost everybody will benefit. Especially because the economy as a whole will be more productive. That’s how it should be done.

credit to help offset the costs of the education that today’s young adults need? For those of our readers not familiar with the “education amount” it is a tax credit based on the number of months of either part time or full time attendance in eligible post-secondary education. 2016 was its final year and the combined credits at that time were $465 per month for full time students and $140 per month for part time students. This tax credit has existed since at least the 80’s.

The above are just the main ones and the changes to the monthly benefit received did not at all help those families hit with all of the above tax increases (effectively) and all at once. I can appreciate how the new platform allows families just starting off with the means to replicate much of the above or use the money for other priorities but one would have thought for the education and text book credits that there would have been a phased in period or grandfathering period for those of a certain age. What could our government do differently come budget 2020?

So with that backdrop and just succinctly ... what could our government be doing differently to not only assist families with the costs of education and fitness and arts but also to encourage the use of transit as just a few examples? AND to put you on the spot a bit here … what would your party specifically do?

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