A flat tax would only benefit the rich

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Of all the bad ideas Jason Kenney and the UCP have had, the return of the flat tax to Alberta is high on the list. Simply put, the flat tax places an additional burden on those who are already the poorest in the province, and it does not lead to growth.

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This province already has a more than fair tax system for the richest people in the province. Currently, Albertans are not taxed on the first $ 19,369 of income, while those earning less than $ 131,220 pay 10% of taxable income, with the figure barely reaching 15% for those earning 314 $ 928.01 or more. In other words, Albertans who earn less than half of the top tax bracket pay only 5%. 100 less.

“We used to have a single rate personal income tax system here… and I think it was responsible for a huge tax shift to Alberta because people moved. here to benefit from by far the most marginal income tax rates in the country, ”Kenney said last week.

While some wealthy people may move to Alberta, if the flat tax is reinstated, it will not help the average wage earner. This is just another form of trickle-down economics, which we have seen time and time again not work.

As Lindsay Tedds, associate professor of economics at the University of Calgary, told CBC in 2018: “It won’t have a big impact on the tax bill unless you’re insanely rich and you pay at this 15% rate. “

Even the conservative think tank Fraser Institute says the flat tax would cost the province $ 1.36 billion in revenue after a four-year period.

Yet it is normal for this government. “Help the rich and the corporations try to create jobs. Lose money and hurt ordinary Albertans instead. Shortly after taking office in 2019, Kenney and his government provided significant tax breaks to oil companies, including $ 233 million to Husky Energy. Husky laid off 370 employees later that year.

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And yet, Kenney did not learn from this failure. Last year he gave TC Energy $ 1.5 billion for a pipeline. Anyone with a brain knew that if Joe Biden won the U.S. election, he would annul them, which he did on his first day in office. Kenney even openly admitted he knew this was one of the President’s campaign promises.

He lost $ 1.3 billion in that province and then had the audacity to ask the Prime Minister to “urge” the United States to compensate Alberta for the money it emptied.

It is clear that giving our money to the better off has not worked, and giving them more tax relief will not bring prosperity to Alberta either. The question needs to be asked, why do they keep trying this?