Alternative budgets

Corporate income tax has long been a leading provider of government revenue. Unfortunately, large sections of the media and policy-making community have accepted the notion, propagated by both the business lobby and neoliberal ideology, that corporate tax is a detrimental, inefficient and growth inhibiting tax. Tax cuts, on the other hand, are said to encourage investment, create jobs and increase productivity. There is strong evidence that neither of these widely held beliefs are true.

Taxes are the foundation of a healthy democracy. They fund the public services we depend on every day: roads, schools, community and social services, health care, justice, environmental protection and much more. But over two decades now, governments have undermined the progressivity of our tax system by cutting corporate and top income tax rates and letting tax loopholes proliferate. The top 1% of Canadians by income now pay a lower overall rate than all other income groups, including the poorest 10%.

Nearly 25 years ago, Canada participated in the 4th World Conference on Women, which resulted in global adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The conference set a new course for feminist activism by recognizing women’s rights as human rights. Bodily autonomy, the ability to decide freely over our bodies, was declared critical to realizing those rights.

The pollster Nik Nanos claimed in June that climate change would be “one of the defining battle grounds” this election. “More important than jobs, more important than health care, more important than immigration.” In July, Abacus Data put climate change in third spot behind health care and cost of living, the latter an important issue (with the environment) for the two-thirds of voters from the millennial and gen-X cohorts.