Federal Pre-Budget Submission Presentation to House of Commons Finance Committee

Ottawa: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) appeared this morning before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. Federal Director John Williamson presented the central pre-budget recommendations from the CTF's submission, A Return to Fiscal Responsibility, for the 2006/07 federal budget.

The CTF's agenda items include:

• Reducing the top two personal income tax rates by 3%, phased-in over three years, from 29% to 26% and 26% to 23%;
  
  
• Increasing both the Basic Personal Exemption and Spousal Exemption to $15,000 within four years to provide tax relief for all Canadians. This change will remove 1.8 million Canadians from the tax rolls and benefit the remaining 13.8 million taxpayers;
  
  
• Replacing the Canada Child Tax Benefit with a universal $10,000 per child income tax credit or payment. The credit (or $1,600 payment) should be available to all parents with children aged eighteen and under;
  
  
• Limiting expenditure growth to a maximum annual amount of inflation and population growth;
  
  
• Instituting a legislated debt repayment schedule with annual payments of 5% of revenues;
  
  
• Redressing inequalities in the Employment Insurance payroll tax regime by lowering and harmonizing employer premiums with those of employees;
  
  
• Ending all corporate welfare and regional development programs, scrapping the federal gun registry, and abrogating the Kyoto Protocol; and
  
  
• Reducing the excessive mortgage insurance rates charged to Canadian homebuyers by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and rebating them for existing owners to offset the $4.5-billion surplus this Crown corporation is projected to accumulate by 2009.

Federal Spending is Unsustainable:

"Last year, Ottawa's program spending jumped by over $21-billion, that's an astounding 15% increase in a single year. Our tax dollars were squandered," observed Mr. Williamson. "Increasing spending at such a pace is simply not responsible and highlights that Ottawa collects too much in taxes."

Canadians Remain Over-Taxed:

"Multi-year and multi-billion dollar surpluses are the result of a structural level of over-taxation levied on Canadians by Ottawa," said Williamson. "The simplest and best remedy for remedying over-taxation is broadly-based tax relief. The tax saving measures outlined by the CTF today will return $13.4-billion to Canadians next year, and to $41.4-billion in 2009."