I wish to applaud Jack Layton, the federal
NDP leader, for successfully negotiating a change in the
proposed federal budget. As a result, the proposed tax cuts for
large corporations have been cancelled.
Do not believe politicians and economists who
say that such tax cuts will create less investment and
employment. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has
statistics to prove that this theory is false. They surveyed 39
large Canadian corporations between 1988 and 2002. This period
has resulted in the biggest tax cuts in Canadian history, all
carried out by Paul Martin, the former finance minister. An
astonishing number of jobs were cut during this period:
100,000.
There have been dramatic changes in the
percentage of income tax that corporation are now paying
compared to individual taxpayers.
Starting in 1955, big business paid 43.4
percent of the total and individuals, 52.3 percent. Forty years
later, by 1995, corporations were only paying 11.2 percent of
the total collected; whereas individuals were paying 87.4
percent. These figures clearly point out the unfairness of our
tax system.
I believe $4.65 billion that was originally
slated for corporate tax cuts will not benefit many phases of
society. Thank God we have an opposition leader who thinks
about the electorate and not just greedy corporations.
Clarence Soule
Greater Sudbury