Stop Blaming Taxes

We need to talk about taxes.

Yes, life is constantly getting more expensive, and taxes can often feel like just another bill to pay. Wages don’t keep pace with inflation, and companies continue to increase prices to maximize their profit margins. It’s totally reasonable for people to feel squeezed by the growing cost of living, and I understand the frustration of those who see taxes as being harmful to their ability to support themselves and their families.

But I think that many people misdirect their outrage towards taxes themselves (or the governments who impose new taxes), rather than criticizing who gets taxed and how our tax dollars get spent. If working people don’t receive any tangible benefit from the taxes they pay, of course they’re going to become resentful at having to pay them. But taxes themselves (in isolation) are not the problem here, the real issue is who benefits from public spending?

Before we argue for lower taxes, we should remember that we need tax revenue to fund our public services. If less taxes are collected, then we have less money available to fund important social services such as public transit, education, and healthcare (among others). All of us benefit from public services in some way, but especially the poor and most vulnerable who cannot afford to pay for things themselves out-of-pocket. The real problem here is that a large proportion of our tax dollars are being handed over to private interests, or being spent in ways that don’t benefit everyday working class people.

Canada spent $18.55 billion on subsidies for the fossil fuel industry in 2023 alone, in a year when the top four oil companies in Canada (Cenovus, Imperial, Suncor, and CNRL) posted combined profits of over $25 billion. That’s $18.55 billion of taxpayer money that was gifted to fossil fuel companies to boost their profits when it could have been spent on renewable energy projects or funding much-needed public services. We should be taxing profitable companies more to help pay for public services, rather than giving our limited tax dollars away to shareholders.

And then in January 2024, the federal government announced that Canada will be spending $19.8 billion to purchase a fleet of F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, which will cost Canadian taxpayers approximately $73.9 billion to maintain over the next 40 years.

Our tax dollars are being handed over to private companies, rather than funding public services that will benefit us. The nearly $40 billion combined spent on fossil fuel subsidies and fighter jets could instead have funded better public transit, the creation of new schools, hospitals, libraries, daycares, parks, recreation centres, housing etc. Or, it could be spent improving existing social programs like healthcare to ensure that dental care, mental health, physiotherapy, pharmaceuticals are all FREE rather than people having to pay the difference themselves.

And then again, on July 30, 2024, seven of Calgary’s city councilors voted against funding to continue Calgary’s low-income transit pass program, when those same seven councilors previously voted yes to spending $1.2 billion to subsidize a new arena for billionaires. A decision that will directly harm low income folks who rely on public transit to commute.

This is an issue of corporate influence over government decision making that goes against the public interest. The tax burden shouldn’t fall on working people, but rather we should be taking significantly more from profitable companies and those in higher income brackets to fund our public services. Taxes themselves are not the issue here; what we need is a greater redistribution of wealth from the top to the bottom, rather than the opposite.