Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

by Murray Dobbin, The Tyee, November 1 2007

Taxes are the price of a civilized society. Support them.

So here we go again, another round of huge tax cuts as the country continues down the road to a neo-con dystopia. Over the next five years the revenue that pays for the things Canadians say they want will drop by $60 billion. There are cuts to the GST, to personal income taxes and corporate taxes — with the latter dropping by 2012 to 15 per cent (from 21 per cent today), an outrageous corporate giveaway, giving us third world status in the “attract investment” race to the bottom.

• More: PSAC news release - Tax cuts a sell out.

It is the continuation of a 20 years process of diminishing the country — a conscious plan implemented by three prime ministers from both the Liberal and Conservative parties. Between 1984 and 2006 the federal government, which is supposed to be looking after the interests of the country, has voluntarily given up over $250 billion in revenue — an amount that would have made a huge difference in the quality of life of Canada. We can now add $60 billion more. Provincial governments are equally culpable.

It’s not hard to list the things we could now be enjoying as a country had those cuts not been made, especially taking into account the annual revenue we would have: a national child care program, a national pharmacare program, a home care program, social housing, radical cuts in tuition fees, and the elimination of this country’s staggering infrastructure deficit, estimated to be between $60 billion and $120 billion.

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