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“If a party isn’t willing to make the tax system fairer by making large corporations and the wealthy pay their share, people are right to ask about whether that party is serious about keeping promises to protect or enhance services.” — Larry Brown, NUPGE President.
Ottawa (2 Oct. 2019) — Today the National Union released its election fact sheets on the austerity agenda, privatization and tax fairness. These are three of the key issues in the National Union’s All Together Now! (ATN) campaign against rising income inequality.
Austerity policies, the privatization of public services and the cuts and loopholes that allow large corporations and the wealthy to avoid paying their fair share all contribute to rising income inequality.
Tax cuts have made the rich richer, while doing little or nothing for most Canadians. Austerity policies have resulted in cuts to public services that have made life more expensive for low and middle income Canadians. And privatization has done both – large corporations and the wealthy are able to profit from privatization, while low and middle income Canadians pay more for services or go without.
Tax fairness policies real test of whether parties will keep other promises
There is a long history of parties promising to protect or enhance public services during election campaign only to break those promises once the election is over. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to figure out who can’t be trusted. Look at their tax policies.
Parties breaking promises to protect or improve public services invariably claim that they are forced to do so because there’s no money. But in most cases the reason there’s no money is that parties are cutting taxes for large corporations and the wealthy or doing nothing about unfair tax loopholes.
“If a party isn’t willing to make the tax system fairer by making large corporations and the wealthy pay their share, people are right to ask about whether that party is serious about keeping promises to protect or enhance services,” said Larry Brown, NUPGE President.
Fact sheets look at party track records, as well as promises
What also gives people a sense of how serious parties are about keeping their promises is their track records in government. Where a party has been in government, the fact sheets include information about what they’ve actually done.