Finance committee  When a government employee retires after 30 years of service and has an annuity worth, say, $1 million to be paid to them for the rest of their lives as a retirement pension, the government doesn't come away and take 40% of the annuity in one year at the top bracket, right? But t

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I think there's no question about the most compelling example. You can look back and see it in the teeth of the financial meltdown of 2008, when the American economy was reeling and when consumer spending was heavily depressed. There's no question that the reduction in the GST by

Finance committee  —it's interesting that when you look at the cost to provincial treasuries of income splitting, the effect is substantial in Atlantic Canada, Ontario, and Quebec, where there's a highly progressive income taxation system, and negligible in Alberta, where there is a flat tax. When

Finance committee  As a choice amongst the supporters of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and when you look at the demographics and what have you, it's quite startling.

Finance committee  That's right. One of our younger employees has two children of pre-school age, including a newborn. He and his wife spend $8,400 on child care. The current ceiling per child is $7,000 and hasn't been bumped up since 1998.

Finance committee  We've just surveyed our supporters. We had nearly 6,000 responses. Our supporters strongly favour fewer brackets, lower rates, and the elimination of boutique tax credits. For example, we view a comprehensive tax reform along the lines of the American tax reform of 1986 as more e

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and committee members. On behalf of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Canada's largest, oldest, and noisiest taxpayer advocacy group, I thank you for the invitation to appear today. We recently surveyed our supporters and had nearly 6,000 responses to the

Finance committee  Yes. We believe that training should be part of the education system within K to 12 and in post-secondary education. We don't believe it's the obligation of a Canadian worker to fund training programs for others out of EI payroll taxes. We also believe that EI should be similar t

Finance committee  Yes. We believe that funding them out of a regressive payroll tax is bad public policy.

Finance committee  I don't want to take too much of your time, but between the previous government and the current government, you had a $57 billion surplus in the EI account in the 2010 budget, which was liquidated into general revenue. So—

Finance committee  —the economy could use a shot in the arm now. Canadians have paid through the nose for a recession they didn't create. If you want to see economic activity and consumer spending, you should get those rates down sooner rather than later. You're taking in $5.5 billion more in reve

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  We certainly wholeheartedly support these reforms as well as the administrative tribunals and the administrative tribunal support services.

Finance committee  We do. We've consistently supported the tax reductions that have come forward, and we're particularly excited, as the government enters a surplus, by the prospects of additional tax relief in next year's budget.