Dear Editor,
The federal government declared it will be bringing in an austerity budget. In the past, austerity budgets cut supports like health care, housing, and financial supports for people who needed them and fired civil servants while cutting taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals. In other words, austerity means more pain for those already in pain and more wealth for corporations and the wealthy. The tax cuts for corporations led to consolidation with little investment in new or improved production.
I believe a true austerity budget would include a temporary increased tax of 5 per cent on individual and corporate taxable income. A resiliency budget would include an additional 5 per cent temporary resiliency tax on individual taxable incomes over $100,000 and corporate taxable income of $1,000,000. The corporate resiliency tax could go to infrastructure investments and investments in companies that fit the government agenda for economic development. Governments should never give money to chosen corporations. The money should be used for purchasing equity. The individual resiliency tax could be used for skills development, enhanced support for the unemployed, housing, etc.
Let’s ditch “1984 newspeak” for labelling government policies.
Sincerely,
Jim Kenney
