The right of centre Canadian Taxpayers Federation finds the Conservative Party of Canada’s platform lacking a credible plan to balance the books and find federal budget savings.
“The Conservatives don’t have a credible plan to balance the budget and they’re barely paying lip service to reducing the deficit,” CTF Federal Director said Franco Terrazzano. “The government is spending $500 billion this year, but instead of going after the low-hanging fruit like reversing MP pay raises, the Conservatives are promising to spend billions the government doesn’t have.”
Although the Conservative platform looks to balance the budget within the decade, the CTF charge that the Conservatives have not shown how they will meet their budget target because the platform does not include a costing analysis.
Members of Parliament received two pay raises during COVID-19. Those raises ranged from $6,900 for an MP without a cabinet post to $13,800 for the prime minister. The CTF is criticizing the Conservative platform for having no plan to roll those increases back.
CTF has previously criticized Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole for having vowed to “immediately repeal the Trudeau government’s carbon tax and vow to reject future national carbon tax plans but instead adding his own carbon tax in the party platform.
Despite the criticism, the Conservative platform did have a couple of bright spots for the tax lobby group: the rejection of a home equity tax and a promise to repeal the escalator tax on alcohol.
