• CTF calls for hike in Basic Personal Exemption to $15,000 by 2008
• Taxpayers demand end to $4 billion in annual corporate welfare subsidies
• EI and CPP over contributions by employers should be abolished
• $2.2 billion for cities NOW: CTF's Municipal Roadway Trust model shows how

2004 Pre-Budget Submission (165 KB)

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) appeared today before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance committee in Ottawa as a witness during the committee's national pre-budget consultation process in the lead up to next spring's federal budget.

"The federal government's so-called $100 billion tax cut schedule ends in 2004. With the feds posting a $7 billion surplus of over-taxation last year alone, it's time to permanently remove 2.1 million Canadians from the tax rolls by raising the Basic Personal Exemption to $15,000 over five years," said CTF federal director Walter Robinson in his testimony before the Finance Committee this morning.

"This proposal is affordable and constitutes the marriage of good fiscal policy with great social policy. Besides, if the BPE had been indexed since the inception of the income tax back in 1917, it would be well over $20,000 today," added Robinson. "Ottawa has some catching up to do on this file."

Other recommendations outlined in the CTF's pre-budget submission entitled Prosperity for all Canadians include:

Abolition of Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) and other corporate welfare programs which top $4 billion annually;
Ending EI and CPP over-contributions paid by employers estimated at $750 million annually;
Establishing an annual legislated debt reduction schedule equivalent to 5% of every tax dollar collected;
Limiting increases in annual government expenditures to a maximum of population plus inflation growth; and
Plowing 50% of federal gas tax collections - $2.2 billion annually - back into cities and