I challenge Mr. Colclough's Feb. 28 letter that a carbon levy is acceptable because we have no provincial sales tax or health care premiums. The only jobs created with the carbon tax were government employees hired to implement the theft then carry out the re-distribution of that theft. The implementation of the carbon tax, a two per cent increase in small business tax, increased minimum wage all resulted in the closure or bankruptcy of dozens of businesses, nothing “revenue neutral” about that. The pipeline fiasco caused a dozen international energy companies to move to other jurisdictions with massive reductions in capital expenditure and thousands of job losses. In January we lost 16,000 jobs with Provincial unemployment rates projected to be 6.5 per cent while in Calgary alone the rate is 7.9 per cent. If Alberta is doing so well Mr. Colclough, explain that?
Colclough says that 60 per cent of the carbon tax is returned to individuals earning $47,000 and to families with annual earnings of less than $95,000. If it was implemented to discourage energy use, how can rebates of 60 per ent encourage anyone to reduce their energy usage if they’re paid not to? Rebates are nothing but socialist re-distribution of wealth from remaining job creators. Colclough suggests that Alberta has no payroll tax? If income tax taken at source isn’t payroll tax, what is?
The absence of pipelines removes the myth that 10 per cent of Canada’s GDP comes from energy and Colclough can no longer disingenuously claim that Alberta has the highest GDP in Canada. Ontario and Quebec’s GDP is higher than Alberta’s on a per capita basis. In fact, Alberta’s GDP went from 4.2 per cent in 2016 to a projected 1.5 per cent in 2019. Canada’s GDP was only 2.1 per cent in 2018, down to only 1.4 per cent in the last quarter, with 60 per cent consumer spending, resulting in consumer “debt to income ratio” of 170 per cent. Considering our current national and provincial debt, without consumers Canada would be an economic basket case. Why is our current trade deficit $4.59 billion, a record low while we import foreign oil? We can attribute that dramatic GDP drop to the disastrous economic policies of governments in Alberta and Ottawa. Colclough claims that Alberta has the lowest corporate and small business tax rates in the country, again he’s wrong. According to government statistics I’ve reviewed, Alberta’s tax rates are higher than Ontario and Quebec and are within one percentage point of every other Province.
In addition, Alberta’s contribution to Canada’s equalization “tax” has subsidized Quebec and the Maritimes to the tune of $349 billion dollars from 1957 to 2018, while Trudeau continues to use tax dollars to prop up Bombardier and our steel and aluminum companies.
Regarding “free” health care, Canada spends 11.3 per cent of its GDP, projected to be $6,839.00 per person in 2019, and is among the highest health care spenders among the 36 OE D Countries. The socialists will scream, but we should permit private health care clinics or introduce health care premiums to reduce this cost and reduce waiting times. The best option is to establish effective economic policies that will sufficiently increase our GDP, to ensure there is no need for more taxes of any kind!
I challenge anyone who disagrees with my research, including Mr. Colclough.
L. Leugner
