Photo: Sean Kilpatrick The Canadian Press “The Conservatives have already said they will vote against this budget. They will vote against fairness,” Justin Trudeau said during a speech to the Liberal caucus.
Michel Saba – The Canadian Press in Ottawa
Published on April 17
- Canada
Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives are opposed to “the ultra-rich” paying their “fair share”, accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the day after the unveiling of a budget which will increase taxes on capital gain for a tiny proportion of the population.
“The Conservatives have already said they will vote against this budget. They will vote against fairness. They will vote against asking the ultra-rich to pay their share,” he said Wednesday during a speech to the Liberal caucus.
However, according to Mr. Trudeau, the “plan” presented by his Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, aims to “responsibly” build an economy “fair for all”, particularly young people.
The $535 billion budget, which shows a deficit of nearly $40 billion for 2023-2024 and no horizon for returning to balance, provides $8.5 billion over five years to accelerate the construction of millions of housing units and 2.6 billion for student aid and scholarship programs.
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Richest Canadians
Ottawa will pay for some of its new spending with better-than-expected economic growth, but also with targeted changes to the capital gains tax expected to raise more than $19 billion over the next five next few years.
These changes are expected to affect 0.13% of Canadians who have an average annual income of $1.4 million.
“Right now, a multimillionaire who dumps his investments can pay a lower tax rate on his income than a middle-class worker. It’s not fair, Mr. Trudeau protested on Wednesday. So we're going to charge them a little more. »
He reiterated that the tax will not apply to primary residences. “So 99.87% of Canadians will not pay a penny more in taxes,” he said.
During question period in the afternoon, the Conservative leader replied to Mr. Trudeau that “he is the “ultrarich”.
“He hid his family fortune in a tax-sheltered trust fund so he wouldn’t have to pay the same taxes as everyone else,” said Mr. Poilievre. He vacations with the ultra-rich on their private islands in tax-efficient locations where they can hide their money and avoid paying their fair share here in Canada. »
And according to him, those who will pay for “this $50 billion orgy of new inflationary spending” are not the billionaires, but “you”, the ordinary citizens who are struggling to make ends meet due to high interest rates and taxes imposed by the government.
“An electoral operation”, says Blanchet
In a response, Mr. Trudeau estimated that while the Conservatives prefer “cuts and austerity”, his government chooses to “invest” in young people, seniors and jobs. the future “because that’s how we build a stronger economy.”
Like the Conservative Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois also confirmed that it would not support the budget. Its leader, Yves-François Blanchet, is against the numerous interferences in provincial jurisdictions.
Daycare services, dental insurance, drug insurance, municipal infrastructure and housing are not the responsibility of Ottawa, he listed.
Mr. Blanchet told journalists that the budget is ultimately only “an electoral operation by a government in panic” which “instrumentalizes” the Canadian constitution.
The New Democrats, for their part, refuse to reveal whether they will vote in favor of the budget, arguing that they still have concerns about certain aspects despite the gains wrested from the government.
The budget notably commits to funding the first phase of a national drug insurance plan and promises federal standards for long-term care — two commitments that the Liberals had made to the New Party democratic.
“Young people are getting ripped off at the grocery store and they know it. They see Loblaw and Metro making record profits. And yesterday's Liberal budget does nothing to fix that. […] Why is the Prime Minister still taking the side of the CEOs rather than that of the young people ?”, asked their leader, Jagmeet Singh, in the House.
Once very popular among young people, the Liberals have seen support among this segment of voters dwindle in favor of the Conservatives, largely because young people feel that the economic dice are at play against them.