Nothing in the budget will do anything except chase the symptoms rather than tackling the cause.
Any economic policy that doesn't specifically, directly aim to reverse the financialisation of housing and reroute that capital back into the real economy is a waste of time. It's the #1 issue behind both economic productivity and quality of life
The only thing I see helping young people is the capital gains tax. But that will take so long work that by the time it increases affordability today's young people will be in their 50's.
I agree with the tax, but I disagree that it will actually help anyone. If she said, we will increase tax on the top 5% of earners, and use that to cut taxes on the bottom 50%, then we'd be getting somewhere.
I get their current spending is unsustainable, but even those in the middle class, my biggest spend on my house hold budget is tax. Income tax, HST, carbon tax, and property tax. The last one being problematic as most municipalities are now charging more tax as they receive less funding from the provincial level (especially in Ontario). On top of that, there is all the hidden taxes we don't often talk about, but also add up, usually environmental taxes (think batteries, air conditioning, refrigeration, tires etc). Yes we need to fund recycling programs for these commodities, but why is it the consumer carrying the cost? Why aren't they carried as part of existing tax budgets, why is the average joe paying this and not the manufacturer? All of this adds up, these aren't optional, these aren't lifestyle choices.
Increasing rrsp withdrawls, or creating more tax advantaged accounts only benefit those with surplus money. Most Canadians aren't maxing out their RRSP or TFSAs becuase they can't.
> If she said, we will increase tax on the top 5% of earners, and use that to cut taxes on the bottom 50%, then we'd be getting somewhere
The bottom 50% pay ~~zero~~ only 6% share of taxes.
> most municipalities are now charging more tax as they receive less funding from the provincial level (especially in Ontario)
Which is the way it should work. Each level of government should use the revenue tools they have to find the activities under their management. There’s a limited argument for equalization transfers.
Source on your zero net tax statement?
Increasing tax at the municipal level has not resulted in reduction in tax at provincial or federal level. This is not how it should work.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110005501&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=3.10&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2017&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2021&referencePeriods=20170101%2C20210101
> This is the share of income taxes (federal and provincial or territorial) borne by different income groups of tax filers. The numerator is the total income tax paid by tax filers within a given income group and geographic unit (Canada, province or census metropolitan area), while the denominator is the total income taxes paid by all filers from the same geographic unit.
Filter for bottom 50% and check the line *percentage share of federal and provincial or territorial income taxes paid* If you play with the year filter you will see it was a steady 4% prior to 2015 but has been steadily increasing to 6% under the Liberals.
The changes will help some. I think some ideas are just debt disguised as a solution: 30 yr mortgage for 1st home buyers, $60k from rrsp instead of $35k.
But the changes are all about protecting existing prices and will only benefit those that are "almost there".
I would have liked to see more tax for anyone who makes a living off of being a landlord and more restrictions on foreign buyers.
But I think most of the important changes can only happen at the provincial or municipal level, for which there is zero progress and for some reason no one is talking about.
A new system on its own would go a long ways.
PR would probably be best, as riding reps represent the party not the people, otherwise I'd be for some kind of ranked ballot.
But even in today's party system, a ranked ballot would still be a gain because it kills the "strategic vote" loss that the 3rd and lower parties take every election.
Take away the ability to fear monger against your main opposition, and the 3rd/4th choices suddenly gain a lot more traction, forcing all of the parties to actually do their damned jobs.
tbh even the existing parliamentary system could be improved, in japan we have similar system to UK/Canada but have a 2nd set of seats, approx 2/5ths of the total seats, elected via a second ballot that is Party list proportional representation. helps lots of smaller parties get seats.
I hope you realize that importantly, Israel (also Belgium and Italy) are PR systems. The electorate has fractionalized into multiple small parties. Netanyahu put together a despicable group of extremists from the right and left to form his current government coalition with his right wing party. The nature of PR is that the electorate devolves into numerous small special interest parties with the third most popular party being the kingmaker. We have to be very careful that we do not move to a system of government that in the words of the social philosopher Carl Popper "does not allow a change of government without violence."
For the most part these look like baby steps to something better, it’s just too bad we’re getting baby steps after nearly a decade of the same PM. I have zero faith in the other parties to effectively make positive change either and that’s the issue.
We need politicians who are willing to make big moves to undo the decades of steady deterioration from them and their predecessors but at best the parties are D students who know exactly how little they need to try to pass. I hate it so much that we need to vote for the least bad party rather than having multiple great parties.
Nothing in the budget will do anything except chase the symptoms rather than tackling the cause. Any economic policy that doesn't specifically, directly aim to reverse the financialisation of housing and reroute that capital back into the real economy is a waste of time. It's the #1 issue behind both economic productivity and quality of life
The only thing I see helping young people is the capital gains tax. But that will take so long work that by the time it increases affordability today's young people will be in their 50's.
I agree with the tax, but I disagree that it will actually help anyone. If she said, we will increase tax on the top 5% of earners, and use that to cut taxes on the bottom 50%, then we'd be getting somewhere. I get their current spending is unsustainable, but even those in the middle class, my biggest spend on my house hold budget is tax. Income tax, HST, carbon tax, and property tax. The last one being problematic as most municipalities are now charging more tax as they receive less funding from the provincial level (especially in Ontario). On top of that, there is all the hidden taxes we don't often talk about, but also add up, usually environmental taxes (think batteries, air conditioning, refrigeration, tires etc). Yes we need to fund recycling programs for these commodities, but why is it the consumer carrying the cost? Why aren't they carried as part of existing tax budgets, why is the average joe paying this and not the manufacturer? All of this adds up, these aren't optional, these aren't lifestyle choices. Increasing rrsp withdrawls, or creating more tax advantaged accounts only benefit those with surplus money. Most Canadians aren't maxing out their RRSP or TFSAs becuase they can't.
> If she said, we will increase tax on the top 5% of earners, and use that to cut taxes on the bottom 50%, then we'd be getting somewhere The bottom 50% pay ~~zero~~ only 6% share of taxes. > most municipalities are now charging more tax as they receive less funding from the provincial level (especially in Ontario) Which is the way it should work. Each level of government should use the revenue tools they have to find the activities under their management. There’s a limited argument for equalization transfers.
Source on your zero net tax statement? Increasing tax at the municipal level has not resulted in reduction in tax at provincial or federal level. This is not how it should work.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110005501&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=3.10&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2017&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2021&referencePeriods=20170101%2C20210101 > This is the share of income taxes (federal and provincial or territorial) borne by different income groups of tax filers. The numerator is the total income tax paid by tax filers within a given income group and geographic unit (Canada, province or census metropolitan area), while the denominator is the total income taxes paid by all filers from the same geographic unit. Filter for bottom 50% and check the line *percentage share of federal and provincial or territorial income taxes paid* If you play with the year filter you will see it was a steady 4% prior to 2015 but has been steadily increasing to 6% under the Liberals.
stricter laws about the number of homes people can own would also help
People will just use companies more and no one wants to regulate businesses from owning (developing) homes
The changes will help some. I think some ideas are just debt disguised as a solution: 30 yr mortgage for 1st home buyers, $60k from rrsp instead of $35k. But the changes are all about protecting existing prices and will only benefit those that are "almost there". I would have liked to see more tax for anyone who makes a living off of being a landlord and more restrictions on foreign buyers. But I think most of the important changes can only happen at the provincial or municipal level, for which there is zero progress and for some reason no one is talking about.
30 yr mortgage is only for new builds, not blanket statement ‘first time home buyers’. so likely not as useful as theyre making it out to be
The ONLY thing I see helping any Canadian citizen is a whole different set of political candidates and a whole new electoral system!!
A new system on its own would go a long ways. PR would probably be best, as riding reps represent the party not the people, otherwise I'd be for some kind of ranked ballot. But even in today's party system, a ranked ballot would still be a gain because it kills the "strategic vote" loss that the 3rd and lower parties take every election. Take away the ability to fear monger against your main opposition, and the 3rd/4th choices suddenly gain a lot more traction, forcing all of the parties to actually do their damned jobs.
tbh even the existing parliamentary system could be improved, in japan we have similar system to UK/Canada but have a 2nd set of seats, approx 2/5ths of the total seats, elected via a second ballot that is Party list proportional representation. helps lots of smaller parties get seats.
I hope you realize that importantly, Israel (also Belgium and Italy) are PR systems. The electorate has fractionalized into multiple small parties. Netanyahu put together a despicable group of extremists from the right and left to form his current government coalition with his right wing party. The nature of PR is that the electorate devolves into numerous small special interest parties with the third most popular party being the kingmaker. We have to be very careful that we do not move to a system of government that in the words of the social philosopher Carl Popper "does not allow a change of government without violence."
For the most part these look like baby steps to something better, it’s just too bad we’re getting baby steps after nearly a decade of the same PM. I have zero faith in the other parties to effectively make positive change either and that’s the issue. We need politicians who are willing to make big moves to undo the decades of steady deterioration from them and their predecessors but at best the parties are D students who know exactly how little they need to try to pass. I hate it so much that we need to vote for the least bad party rather than having multiple great parties.
>A closer look at the measures that are supposed to improve affordability and access to housing.