National day care, pharmacocare, and dental care support plummets to well below half of Canadians when paid by tax increases, especially the Goods and Services Tax (GST). New poll find.
All three programs were included or committed in 2022 Federal budget Treasury Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on April 7.
The budget estimates that $ 10 a day day care will cost $ 7.9 billion annually by 2025/26, while dental care will cost about $ 1.7 billion annually when fully implemented. It has been leaked. Pharmacare has not been officially introduced yet, Health Canada in 2019..
“Despite the federal government’s approach of borrowing now for public programs and paying later, Canadians say that these new programs ultimately cost taxpayers a considerable amount of money. We need to be aware of this, “said Associate Jake Fas.Director of Fiscal Policy Research at Fraser Institute and co-author of “Polling Canadian Support for New Federal Government Programs” press release May 3rd.
In an online poll of 1,509 Canadians over the age of 18 from April 15 to April 17, more than two-thirds of respondents said they had no changes to their existing taxes. I found that I support the program of.
However, if a scenario is presented in which the GST rate is increased, support will plummet. The authors state that they chose GST over other taxes. This is “because all Canadians are aware that GST is displayed and paid, and that it is a tax that finances government spending.”
For example, 69% of respondents support the introduction of a $ 10 daily day care program at no cost. Atlantic Canadians have the strongest level of support, either “strongly” or “somewhat”, at 88%, while prairie respondents have the lowest at 63%. ..
However, if you pay for the program by raising the GST from 5% to 6%, state- and region-wide support will be “substantially” reduced to just 36%. Support from Atlantic Canada has been cut by almost half (45%), while Alberta and British Columbia each show the lowest level of support at 35%.
Similarly, if there is no tax increase, Universal Pharmacare’s support is “overwhelming.” At the moment of considering raising the GST, the majority of respondents (79%) changed their stance and reduced their support to 40%.
The same is true for dentistry, where 72% of respondents have expressed support for the program, but when associated with an increase in GST, that number drops to 42%.
“Current discussions about such programs are largely based on the belief that they enjoy overwhelming public support. Numerous polls have been published in the last few years and all three programs It shows incredibly strong support for … but few polls cost money to offer these new programs, “the study said.
“Increased government spending requires funding in one of two ways: tax increases or borrowing. Simply put, governments can tax today or tomorrow in the form of borrowing today. increase.”
The authors argued that the implementation of the 2022 budget by the Liberal Party government would continue to depend on borrowing and postponement of tax increases.
“In other words, the budget doesn’t take into account the tax increases needed to pay current spending, so it provides an incomplete picture of the true costs of these programs,” they said.
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Isaac Teo is a Toronto-based Epoch Times reporter.