Business
Trump victory means Canada must get serious about tax reform
From the Fraser Institute
By Jake Fuss and Alex Whalen
Following Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, lower taxes for both U.S. businesses and individuals will be at the top of his administration’s agenda. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Trudeau has raised taxes on businesses and individuals, including with his recent capital gains tax hike.
Clearly, Canada and the United States are now moving in opposite directions on tax policy. To prevent Canada from falling even further behind the U.S., policymakers in Ottawa and across Canada should swiftly increase our tax competitiveness.
Before the U.S. election, Canada was already considered a high-tax country that made it hard to do business. Canada’s top combined (federal and provincial) personal income tax rate (as represented by Ontario) ranked fifth-highest out of 38 high-income industrialized (OECD) countries in 2022 (the latest year of available data). And last year, Canadians in every province, across most of the income spectrum, faced higher personal income tax rates than Americans in nearly every U.S. state.
Our higher income tax rates make it harder to attract and retain high-skilled workers including doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs. High tax rates also reduce the incentives to save, invest and start a business—all key drivers of prosperity.
No doubt, we need reform now. To close the tax gap and increase our competitiveness, the federal government should reduce personal income tax rates. One option is to reduce the top rate from 33.0 per cent back down to 29.0 per cent (the rate before the Trudeau government increased it) and eliminate the three middle-income tax rates of 20.5 per cent, 26.0 per cent and 29.0 per cent.
These changes would establish a new personal income tax landscape with just two federal rates. Nearly all Canadians would face a personal income tax rate of 15.0 per cent, while top earners would pay a marginal tax rate of 29.0 per cent.
On business taxes, Canada’s rates are also higher than the global average and uncompetitive compared to the U.S., which makes it difficult to attract business investment and corporate headquarters that provide well-paid jobs and enhance living standards. According to Trump’s campaign promises, he plans to lower the federal business tax rate from 21 per cent to 20 per cent (and reduce the rate to 15 per cent for companies that make their products in the U.S.). Trump must work with congress to implement these changes, but barring any change in Canadian policy, business tax cuts in the U.S. will intensify Canada’s net outflow of business investment and corporate headquarters to the U.S.
The federal government should respond by lowering Canada’s business tax rate to match Trump’s plan. Moreover, Ottawa should (in coordination with the provinces) change tax policy to only tax business profits that are not reinvested in the company—that is, tax dividend payments, share buybacks and bonuses but don’t touch profits that are reinvested into the company (this type of business taxation has helped supercharge the economy in Estonia). These reforms would encourage greater business investment and ultimately raise living standards for Canadians. Finally, given Canada’s massive outflow of business investment, the government should (at a minimum) reverse the recent federal capital gains hike.
Of course, there’s much to quibble with in Trump’s policies. For example, his tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy (and likely Canada’s economy), and tax cuts without spending reductions and deficit-reduction will simply defer tax hikes into the future. But while policymakers in Ottawa can’t control U.S. policy, Trump’s tax plan will significantly exacerbate Canada’s competitiveness problem. We can’t afford to sit idle and do nothing. Ottawa should act swiftly in coordination with the provinces and pursue bold pro-growth tax reform for the benefit of Canadians.
Authors:
Business
Up to $41 billion in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds
News release from Oxfam International
Up to $41 billion in World Bank climate finance —nearly 40 percent of all climate funds disbursed by the Bank over the past seven years— is unaccounted for due to poor record-keeping practices, reveals a new Oxfam report.
An Oxfam audit of the World Bank’s 2017-2023 climate finance portfolio found that between $24 billion and $41 billion in climate finance went unaccounted for between the time projects were approved and when they closed.
There is no clear public record showing where this money went or how it was used, which makes any assessment of its impacts impossible. It also remains unclear whether these funds were even spent on climate-related initiatives intended to help low- and middle-income countries protect people from the impacts of the climate crisis and invest in clean energy.
“The Bank is quick to brag about its climate finance billions —but these numbers are based on what it plans to spend, not on what it actually spends once a project gets rolling,” said Kate Donald, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington D.C. Office. “This is like asking your doctor to assess your diet only by looking at your grocery list, without ever checking what actually ends up in your fridge.”
The Bank is the largest multilateral provider of climate finance, accounting for 52 percent of the total flow from all multilateral development banks combined.
The issue of climate finance will take center stage at this year’s COP in Azerbaijan, where countries are set to negotiate a new global climate finance goal, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). Climate activists are demanding the Global North provide at least $5 trillion a year in public finance to the Global South “as a down payment towards their climate debt” to the countries, people and communities of the Global South who are the least responsible for climate breakdown but are the most affected. Oxfam warns that the lack of traceable spending could undermine trust in global climate finance efforts at this critical juncture.
“Climate finance is scarce, and yes, we know it’s hard to deliver. But not tracking how or where the money actually gets spent? That’s not just some bureaucratic oversight —it’s a fundamental breach of trust that risks derailing the progress we need to make at COP this year. The Bank needs to act like our future depends on tackling the climate crisis, because it does,” said Donald.
Oxfam’s investigation revealed that obtaining even basic information on how the World Bank is using climate finance was painstaking and difficult.
“We had to sift through layers of complex and incomplete reports, and even then, the data was full of gaps and inconsistencies. The fact that this information is so hard to access and understand is alarming —it shouldn’t take a team of professional researchers to figure out how billions of dollars meant for climate action are being spent. This should be transparent and accessible to everyone, most importantly communities who are meant to benefit from climate finance,” said Donald.
Notes to editors
Download Oxfam’s new report “Climate Finance Unchecked.”
Business
Here’s how the feds blew your money this week
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
If politicians don’t want you to think they’re shady and only out for themselves, then they should stop doing shady, self-serving stuff like this.
The Trudeau government wants to push back the next federal election (currently scheduled for Oct. 20, 2025) by one week.
Politicians claim the election must be moved to Oct. 27, 2025, because the original date conflicts with the religious holiday of Diwali.
But it just so happens that 80 MPs won’t be eligible for their taxpayer-funded, lifetime pensions until Oct. 21, 2025.
One day after the currently scheduled election…
What a coincidence!
If the election is moved, those extra pensions for politicians (who don’t deserve them) would cost you tens of millions of dollars.
In fact, the CTF estimates the price tag could be as high as $120 million. Some politicians will serve for barely six years and walk out the door with a $2-million pension.
But those politicians don’t deserve a penny more from you.
They already take annual salaries ranging from $200,000 to $300,000. They already take a pay raise every single year. They already take a $100,000 severance and a $15,000 transition allowance.
They can take those bloated, six-figure salaries of theirs and use them to save for their own retirements.
At minimum, politicians shouldn’t be trying to rig the system to stick their greedy fingers deeper into your pockets.
This week, CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano went into the belly of the beast and testified at a Parliamentary committee. He stuck up for you and called B.S. on the plan to pinch extra pensions for politicians.
Franco laid out two simple solutions.
- Option one: If the election must be moved, then make it earlier.
- Option two: make the pension eligibility date later.
We’ve got some good news to report back.
The Conservatives are opposed to the government delaying the election to secure millions in pensions for dozens of politicians who don’t deserve them.
So is the Bloc Québécois and the NDP.
And here’s something we’ve never seen before.
At committee, a Liberal MP told Franco she would vote against her own government and oppose moving the election.
You can watch Franco’s opening remarks at the Parliamentary committee by clicking the link below.
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