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1. Canada has a business investment problem—deal with it

   It’s not as if we needed more bad news about Canada’s economic prospects. But we got it last week with the latest data highlighting the country’s weak business investment. Statistics Canada released its latest survey results on ...

2. 2018 budget—another nail in the coffin of Trudeau’s balanced budget promise

   While campaigning for the 2015 election, then-candidate Justin Trudeau made a commitment to Canadians, pledging three years of modest budget deficits of no more than $10 billion, with a balanced budget by the end of his first mandate in ...

3. Trudeau government 0-for-3 for budgets that improve fundamentals for growing the economy

   With the Trudeau government tabling its third budget, the script has become familiar. Each budget the government loudly proclaims platitudes about growing the economy and helping the middle class. In reality, there’s no magic lever to ...

4. Another wake-up call for Canadian governments to improve investment climate

   Suncor, one of the country’s largest energy companies, recently gave Canadian governments what should be a piercing wake-up call. CEO Steve Williams said his company won’t tackle any new major projects in Canada and his company will ...

5. Workers, not businesses, will ultimately pay B.C.’s new payroll health tax

   A key policy announcement in B.C.’s 2018 budget is the elimination of Medical Services Premiums (MSP) in 2020 and introduction of a new payroll tax—the employer health tax (EHT). Some claim this tax swap will lift the financial burden ...

6. Call a spade a spade—CPP payroll tax is a tax

   Our recent study found that virtually all Canadian families with children will soon pay higher taxes due to federal income tax changes already in place and forthcoming increases to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) payroll tax. If the ...

7. Reality undercuts Trudeau government’s tax-cutting claim

   There’s no doubt that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being asked some tough questions on his current cross-country town hall tour. But a recent study on taxation raises yet another critical question for the prime minister. For a ...

8. Top earners in Canada pay a disproportionate share of Canada’s tax burden

   There’s a misperception in Canada that top earners generally do not pay their “fair share” of the tax burden. Rhetoric from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government helps fuel this misperception, which is used to justify even higher ...

9. Trudeau government tax policies puzzling in light of finance minister’s admission

   In a recent year-end press scrum, Finance Minister Bill Morneau (pictured above, right) said something unexpectedly telling. Although it did not receive widespread attention, Morneau all but admitted that raising tax rates changes the ...

10. Changing tax rules for diabetics—another missed opportunity for positive tax reform

    Many Canadians living with type 1 diabetes may see their income tax bill increase as a result of the Trudeau government’s revised interpretation of the Income Tax Act. According to Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier, “advances in ...