Ottawa, ON – Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance, and Adam Chambers, Conservative Shadow Minister for National Revenue, released the following statement:
“Today, the NDP-Liberal Government confirmed that they will delay the disastrous NDP-Liberal capital gains tax hike which would’ve sent our already weak and failing economy into a tailspin. But despite backing down for now they are promising to bring it back after the next election.
“This is a temporary reprieve for doctors, farmers, small businesses, entrepreneurs and home builders. And it only came as a result of constant pressure from Common Sense Conservatives who rang the alarm bell over this tax hike’s devastating consequences for workers across our country.
“Despite this, the NDP-Liberals are still promising to hike taxes on homebuilders during a housing shortage, raise taxes on doctors during a doctor shortage and on small businesses when Canadians’ paycheques are shrinking. They also want to raise taxes on farmers at a time when millions of Canadians are having to line up outside of food banks.
“But worse still, the NDP-Liberal Government created chaos when the CRA began collecting this tax, even though they never made this tax hike law after they shut down Parliament to hide from an election. This has created months of uncertainty and a tax-filing nightmare for working Canadians across our country.
“Even Carbon Tax Chrystia, who was the architect behind the capital gains tax hike, and who once warned that without this tax hike, ‘those at the very top live lives of luxury but must do so in gated communities … because the public sphere is so degraded and the wrath of the vast majority of their lesser privileged compatriots burns so hot,’ claimed just a few days into her Liberal leadership campaign that she would scrap her own tax hike because of its devastating effects.
“Common Sense Conservatives have consistently warned that this tax hike would be catastrophic for the Liberals’ already weak and failing economy. This was confirmed by the CD Howe Institute who reported that the capital gains tax hike would’ve caused Canada’s employment to decline by an additional 414,000 jobs. It would’ve also caused Canada’s GDP to decline by $90 billion.
“After nine years, the NDP-Liberal government is not worth the chaos. Only Common Sense Conservatives will bring home powerful paycheques for Canadians by axing the tax and fixing the budget.”