To all the politicians trying to win votes on doorsteps and in community centres this fall, taxpayers’ priorities could not be clearer: Lower taxes, less wasteful spending and more accountable government.
British Columbians are struggling and we deserve relief. Right now, about one in five British Columbians are struggling with food insecurity, according to Food Banks Canada. Even worse, more than 11,300 people in our province are experiencing homelessness, according to the government’s own statistics.
A family making $100,000 per year in Vancouver will pay more than $90,000 this year in taxes, utility fees and housing costs, according to intercity cost comparisons included in Saskatchewan’s last provincial budget. That same family in Toronto would pay about $79,000, $48,000 in Calgary or about $46,000 in Montreal.
British Columbians are paying far more than most Canadians, but why does it feel like we’re being left behind?
David Eby’s BC NDP government has been on a taxpayer-funded spending spree over the past few years. The B.C. government budgeted $62.2 billion (adjusted for inflation) worth of total spending in 2017. This year, spending has reached $90.7 billion.
That’s a 46-per-cent increase in government spending. Over the same time period, our provincial population increased by less than 12 per cent. Neither inflation nor population growth are to blame for ballooning spending by the province.
Overall, the NDP has raised or created dozens of taxes and fees on everything, from soft drinks to used cars, to freedom of information requests, to the natural gas you probably use to heat your home.
The NDP has hiked taxes on home heating fuels to the point that the taxes on natural gas used to heat homes often costs more than the natural gas itself.
To his credit, Eby has promised that B.C. will scrap the consumer carbon tax. But in the same breath, he vowed to hike taxes on “big polluters.”
British Columbians would still be paying a carbon tax, but now it would be hidden as the costs are passed down from businesses to families.
We need tax relief, not tax rebrands.
There’s no shortage of wasteful spending that politicians should be promising to cut.
Wannabe politicians knocking at your door should commit to scrapping the 2026 FIFA World Cup Games slated to take place in Vancouver.
Hosting just seven games (of 104 in the entire tournament) will cost taxpayers roughly $580 million. That works out to just under a million taxpayer dollars per minute of regular game time.
Even after the expected revenue brought in by the games, the net cost is expected to sit somewhere between $100 million and $144 million.
Just the interest on our $128.6 billion provincial debt is costing British Columbians $4.7 billion this year. That shakes out to about $900 per British Columbian. Government debt is just deferred taxation that we’re on the hook for sooner or later.
While the government is hiking taxes to pay for wasteful spending, it’s also making it harder for taxpayers and journalists to hold the government accountable.
The next B.C. government should scrap the fees attached to freedom of information requests. In B.C., journalists and taxpayers wanting to see government documents first need to pay a $10 application fee. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Before the government releases documents, they often try to charge tens of thousands of dollars in fees. In one case, UBC asked for $28,000 before it would disclose how much money it spent on bonuses.
When the politicians knock on your door asking for votes this fall, ask them how they are going to fight for lower taxes, less waste and more accountable government.
Carson Binda is the B.C. director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
