And student loans. My friend from St. John's quite rightly mentions the issue of student loans.
Many students graduating from an undergraduate degree today are leaving their studies with the equivalent of a mortgage to pay back with no house in which to live. For future generations and for the current generation, this is a huge and often insurmountable hurdle to get over. Many declare personal bankruptcy as they start out in life. As they start on their new careers, they face that very daunting prospect of forfeiting their credit rating by declaring personal bankruptcy for investing in their own future by furthering their education and pursuing a degree.
The people who are tempting to leave do so with very heavy hearts. We in the maritimes in particular have faced this for 100 years or more. The very best, the talented young people who have educated themselves and have a great sense of tradition and attachment to their communities and towns and villages face this very gut-wrenching decision of having to leave to work. Contrary to the opinions of many, the people of the Atlantic provinces are not unlike any other region in the country. They simply want to have an opportunity to work, live and contribute in their communities.
Taxing income discourages people from earning, saving and investing, all of which are crucial to economic growth in Canada. If we continue down this path and this philosophy of punishing those who are more productive then we will see that the productivity continue to wane.
According to Jack Mintz, a professional on taxation at the University of Toronto's J.L. Rotman School of Management , the costs in terms of lost output are $15 billion to $140 billion a year or from $500 to $4,500 per person annually.
We should also target capital taxes, high sales taxes on business outputs and high personal taxes on business owners. A more progressive step would be for the government to shift from investment and savings taxes to consumption based taxes. Dare I say it, the GST, the much hated tax, was introduced with that very much in mind, a consumption tax that was fair and that was meant to be attached to the deficit. Canada could adopt a personal expenditure tax and more taxes on the user pay principle.