Editor:

In a recent distribution entitled “Tax Guide,” Bruce-Grey Owen Sound MP Larry Miller falsely accuses the federal Liberal government of raising taxes for middle-class families. In fact, this government lowered taxes for nine out of ten families, as one of its first acts in government.

Mr. Miller's pamphlet then neglects to mention the most important new benefit available to BGOS residents this tax season – the Climate Action Incentive, worth more than $300 to the average Ontario family of four and designed to offset the financial impact of pollution pricing for individual Ontarians. That’s not including the ten per-cent top-up for residents of rural communities, ours among them.

The truth is that most area households will receive more in Climate Action Incentive payments than they incur in costs stemming from pollution pricing – if they take advantage of the incentive, which they can’t do if they don’t know it exists.

Politics is one thing. Misleading people for the sake of scoring political points, in a way that could cost them hundreds of dollars, is another. Particularly when the purported “tax guide” itself is paid for by taxpayers.

Here, for the record, are a few of the measures the Liberal government has introduced to help make life more affordable for Canadians, since 2015:

· Introduced the Canada Child Benefit, replacing the Harper government’s patchwork of boutique credits and benefits for millionaires with a simpler, more generous, tax-free support for regular Canadian parents.

· Raised income taxes for the wealthiest one per cent and lowered them for regular Canadians. Nine million Canadians now pay lower income tax, with estimated savings in 2019 of $2,000 for the typical middle-class family of four. Single Canadians save an average of $330 a year, while couples save an average $540 a year.

· Created the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) – a stronger, more generous and more accessible benefit to help lower-income workers keep more of their hard-earned wages.

· Ended years of paralysis in federal-provincial relations, reaching an historic agreement with the provinces to enhance the Canada Pension Plan by up to 50 per cent. As a result, Canadians can now look forward to a more secure retirement.

· Lowered the small business tax rate to nine per cent from 11 per cent. Canada now has among the lowest small-business tax rates in the world.

· Invested nearly $2 billion to help women launch and grow businesses.

· In the Fall Economic Statement 2018, unveiled tax changes that will allow businesses of all sizes to immediately write off the full cost of new machinery and equipment; immediately write off the full cost of specified clean energy equipment; and write off a greater share of the cost of new assets.

· In 2018, after holding firm in a tough negotiation, achieved an updated North American Free Trade Agreement that preserves tariff-free access for 98 per cent of Canadian exports to the NAFTA zone. Hundreds of thousands of good, middle-class jobs that were at risk due to trade tensions, are now more secure.

· Since November of 2015, Canadians have created 800,000 new jobs. Unemployment is at a 40-year low. Child poverty has been cut in half.

Conservative politicians are entitled to their opinions, as are we all. They are not entitled to their own facts.

Sincerely,

Michael Den Tandt
Candidate for Liberal Party of Canada nomination