EDMONTON - The Alberta government will introduce a bill in the upcoming session of the Legislature to cut the tax on the profits of large corporations. They plan to slash the rate from 12 percent to 8 percent over four years ($2.36 billion), which will worsen Alberta’s revenue shortfall to line the pockets of the wealthy.
“There is never a good time to cut taxes for the wealthy, but to give the most profitable corporations a tax break when Alberta’s shortage of government revenue is already severe means regular Albertans will pay the price,” said Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “We will pay for it with cuts to the services Albertans value.”
French highlighted Alberta Finance and Treasury Board’s own numbers that show the province’s tax system already significantly underperforms in generating revenue compared to every other tax system in the country.
“The government’s own numbers show where the problem is in the budget,” said French. “The tax system of any other province in the country would raise Alberta a minimum of an additional $11 billion per year. The single most effective action the government could take to strengthen our economy would be to close that tax gap and immediately invest the resulting revenue in our strained health care and education systems.”
“Time after time, we see this ‘trickle-down’ idea of giving tax breaks to rich corporations and individuals just simply doesn’t work,” added French. “It’s a wealth transfer to the already wealthy, at the expense of public services. Most Canadians agree that the wealthy need to pay their fair share of taxes. We need to call this cut what it is: a corporate handout.”
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