Fiscal and Tax Policy - Op Eds

Many have opined that the proposed increase in the capital gains inclusion rate is bad tax, fiscal and economic policy. We need to add to that refrain: The implementation scheme amounts to market manipulation for insignificant and arbitrary fiscal goals through cynical pre-legislation enforcement.

In last week’s budget, Ottawa raised the taxable amount when selling capital assets such as stocks. For businesses, and for individuals beyond a threshold, two-thirds of capital gains would be taxed, up from half. The budget set June 25 as the effective date.

Why did the government set such a deadline?

One guess is that the government felt some guilt over this and offered a narrow window of escape.

But few points…

This week’s federal budget focuses on spending initiatives that, in the name of intergenerational fairness, it asks the wealthiest among us to pay for. A better way to finance new spending would be to arrest and reverse Canada’s growth and productivity challenges. Not only does the budget not do that, but its increase in the capital gains inclusion rate from 50 per cent to 66 per cent for corporations, trusts, and individuals on gains in excess of $250,000 a year is likely to make these challenges worse.

Some owners of small businesses who are active in their businesses will catch a break — just a 33 per cent inclusion rate up to a maximum of $2 million in lifetime capital gains — provided they don’t operate in the financial,…

Before the federal budget, we laid out a 10-point scheme for grading it. We were hoping the document would deserve better than the ‘D’ we gave the government’s fall economic statement. Unfortunately, it falls well short of what Canadians need and therefore gets another ‘D.’ Here’s our detailed report card:

1. Timely release. The budget was late — more than two weeks into the fiscal year and six weeks after the Main Estimates. Money is being spent without due consideration by Parliament. D.

2. Cut the spin and just give us the figures. The key numbers — revenue, expenses, deficits and debt — should be up front but were buried under 350-plus pages of spin. D.

3. Make clear what is rehashed and what is new. The budget…

This week’s federal budget paid passing lip service to the challenge of Canada’s dismal productivity and falling living standards. In an over-long and mostly self-congratulatory preamble, the budget acknowledged: “Canada has struggled with productivity growth — how much more income we are able to generate with each hour worked. This has led to a longstanding productivity gap, notably with the United States. Expanding the productive capacity of the Canadian economy and overcoming Canada’s productivity challenges are essential.”

Important words, but whoever wrote them seems to have had no influence over what came next. The budget’s projections and measures prefigure nothing but more handouts, higher taxes, mounting debt and…

Yesterday’s federal budget showed again—as if it were needed—that this government is not serious about public finances. It was late, given that the 2024/25 fiscal year started more than two weeks ago. It buried the numbers on revenue, expenses, deficit, and debt that ought to be upfront under 350-plus pages of spin. And while the numbers themselves look serious—relentlessly rising taxes and spending, chronic deficits, and interest eating ever more revenue—we have no reason to believe them.

Why would we? The government’s first projections for the current budget year of 2024/25 were in its 2019 fall economic statement. That statement showed federal spending of $421 billion in 2024/25. The government presented no budget at all in…