Thank you for this opportunity.
I'm a member of Nova Scotians for Tax Fairness. I have a six-page brief; I've given several copies of it to your staff, but because it wasn't translated, it can't be in front of you until the translation is available.
There is a lot more detail in what we've presented than in what I will say. We recommend 12 ways to make the federal tax system more equitable and to raise additional revenue for progressive public programs. We applaud the government's sensible view that deficits are a way to stimulate the economy while funding nation-building change, but we believe such change is only sustainable if revenues are increased.
We make eight recommendations to increase revenue and fairness. Four of those are to change tax deductions to refundable tax credits. That's one of the four. Another is to raise the corporate income tax rate toward the level in the U.S., one of our main competitors and the one that we're always comparing ourselves with.
A third is to exclude companies that use aggressive tax evasion and avoidance techniques from competition for contracts to supply publicly funded goods and services. This, we think, would be a very important incentive to reduce tax avoidance and tax evasion.
The fourth was to implement the key recommendations presented by Canadians for Tax Fairness to raise $20 billion per year.
We also support two public finance ideas that are important to the Maritimes. The first of those is to reinforce the principle of equal citizenship by restoring equalization funding to historic levels of 1.36% of GDP and by establishing an arm's-length body to oversee the transfers.
The second one is to reinstate the 6% annual increase in the federal contribution to medicare in 2017 and beyond, recognize increased costs due to an aging population as part of the formula, and make universal pharmacare and other improvements conditions for expanded federal funding.
On carbon taxes, we applaud the government's decision to establish a nationally coordinated carbon pricing system. It is essential, in our view, to continue to raise carbon prices beyond 2022 to change industry and consumer behaviour. It's also essential to require provinces to compensate most households for increased energy costs and to invest in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
A carbon tax benefit similar to the child tax benefit, which the government has instituted this year, would be a good model for compensating low- and middle-income households as carbon prices rise.
Thank you for your attention, and we look forward to a progressive, forward-looking 2017 budget.