OTTAWA –
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is standing by her authorities’s determination to not impose a windfall tax on oil and gas firms on this week’s fall financial assertion, regardless of calls from the NDP to take action, and different G7 nations making an analogous transfer.
Freeland unveiled her fall financial assertion Thursday, which gave an replace on the state of the Canadian financial system, and detailed the Liberals’ spending plans. As Freeland had signalled within the weeks main as much as the assertion, it featured little by way of new spending, however it does embrace beforehand introduced focused measures, such because the doubling of the GST credit score, dental advantages for some youngsters beneath 12, and a one-time top-up for low-income renters.
The financial replace additionally features a “downside scenario,” a sign of the worst-case-scenario projected deficit, ought to Canada enter into a gentle recession within the new yr.
But the Liberals’ provide and confidence companions, the NDP, are calling for a windfall tax on massive firms, together with oil and gas firms, that goes past the windfall tax on banks and insurance coverage firms introduced within the final funds.
The windfall tax is a better tax charge on particular above-average earnings ensuing from sudden circumstances, such because the struggle in Ukraine, which has led to report income for oil and gas firms.
But in an interview with CTV’s Question Period with Joyce Napier, airing Sunday, Freeland mentioned it’s not one thing the federal government is contemplating presently.
“The windfall tax on financial institutions was based on a very specific set of events,” she mentioned. “During COVID-19 lockdowns, the federal government undertook extraordinary emergency spending. We basically put a line, a net, underneath the Canadian economy.”
“It was the right thing to do,” she additionally mentioned. “And it also really, really helped our financial institutions.”
Freeland as an alternative talked about the 2 per cent tax on share buybacks by massive firms, a brand new measure included within the financial assertion, which she mentioned is “the right measure to ensure fairness, but also crucially to create the right incentives for Canada’s biggest companies, very much including our oil and gas companies.”
“We absolutely do agree that everyone in Canada needs to pay their fair share,” Freeland mentioned. “That’s how we afford to have the strong compassionate society and social safety net that is so much a part of Canada and being Canadian.”
“We’ve chosen to approach it in this fall economic statement in a slightly different — but I think really smart — way,” she added.
Meanwhile the NDP are additionally calling on the Liberals to get rid of the GST on house heating, whereas the Conservatives need them to chop the carbon tax.
With information from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha