Watch above: study suggests Canadians spend more on taxes than necessities
SASKATOON – A non-partisan report claims the average Canadian families spend 42 per cent of their income taxes on taxes, compared to 36 per cent on basic necessities like food and clothing.
The report, completed by the Fraser Institute, includes all types of taxes and claims they’ve outpaced the Consumer Price Index, which measures the average price of consumer goods like food, shelter and education.
Saskatoon-Humboldt MP Brad Trost hopes the trend can be curbed starting next year. Trost has been a proponent of tax cuts since he assumed office in 2004.
“We’re looking at maybe a six to nine billion dollar surplus next year and I, for one, will be advocating putting that all towards tax cuts,” said Trost.
The report compares 2013 to 1961, when Canadian families spent 36 per cent of their income on taxes and 57 per cent on basic needs.
However, not all agree with the Fraser report’s conclusion. University of Saskatchewan professor Daniel Béland argues that the report doesn’t tell the whole story.
“I think we have to look at the spending side and what we spend the money on and not just the revenue side,” said Béland, who is the Canada research chair in public policy at the university.
There are more social services and medicare had yet to be implemented in the province in 1961, said Beland, who said the Fraser report was “incomplete.”
“There is no free lunch out there,” he added.
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