Summary
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced measures to address the rising cost of living, including a temporary suspension of the federal sales tax (GST) on select goods from Dec. 14 to Feb. 15 and one-time checks of C$250 for 18.7 million Canadians earning up to C$150,000 in 2023.
The tax break covers items like children’s clothing, toys, restaurant meals, and beverages.
Critics view the move as a desperate political strategy ahead of a looming federal election, with Trudeau’s Liberals trailing Conservatives 39% to 26% in recent polls.
It’s not like this money is sitting in a bank account. Government finances don’t work like your budget, it’s not a matter of tax income going to a chequing account and him eTransfering Canadians money.
The government decides where new money is allocated and takes money out of the money supply through taxation. When it comes to circulation, the government can also incentivize saving or spending by giving tax breaks or levying new taxes.
The Bank of Canada also influences peoples’ spending, borrowing, and saving decisions by controlling interest rates.
The government could decide to implement UBI tomorrow and they wouldn’t have to hold a bake sale, they’d just have to raise taxes elsewhere (or reduce the amount of money entering the economy through the banking system) to control the inflationary pressure that would add to the economy.
I’m aware of this, and I know that it takes spending money first to strengthen our economy later. Where this is a bother is that $250 won’t do anything for anyone and someone will have to pay for it eventually and that money could be better spent doing things like fixing our horrible situation with a lack of doctors and nurses(and maybe they could pay the nurses more).
If it won’t be enough to make our lives meaningfully different then it won’t do much of anything in the long-term or even much in the short-term.
Health care is a provincial service and the federal government can’t directly pay nurses more.
I understand the point you’re trying to make, but the federal government has certain powers and this is working within the confines of those powers.
Even attempting to do something like forcing provinces to implement a climate change plan are met with extreme resistance. You should take up these issues with your provincial government.
Conveniently, that government blames the federal government and keeps asking for more money that it misallocates or just sits upon, at least this is true of Ontario.
Reducing sales tax (which is a regressive tax) on more things is a good thing, but stability in the money supply should be kept by collecting taxes elsewhere. The NDP plan where this same thing was proposed was a permanent sales tax break on these essentials AS WELL AS a corporate windfall tax in the model of what’s done in Europe and has historically been done in Canada as well.
Like usual, the best Liberal policies are bastardized versions of NDP policies.