To the Editor:
The Harper government has been increasing the burden of Employment Insurance (EI) premiums by some $600-million-per-year every year since 2011.
Mr. Harper claims that he doesn't increase taxes, but that's obviously not true. When these taxes escalate year-after-year, small business groups and chambers of commerce call them "job killers", because they make it more expensive-per-job to expand employment.
In the wake of the 2008-09 recession, job creation was supposed to be Canada's Number-One economic priority. But despite that, the Conservatives have been levying higher and higher EI payroll taxes - making job creation and even sustaining existing employment more difficult.
They announced this perverse policy in 2010. It came into effect on January 1st, 2011. Over the last three years, new Conservative payroll taxes have raked in a cumulative total of more than $3.6-billion, largely out of the pockets of middle-class Canadians.
Finally, this past Monday, the Harper government announced a freeze on further increases, effective next January. It's about time. Better late than never, I suppose. But what brought on this change of heart, after years of stubborn refusals?
Mr. Harper says he can now afford to forego the new revenue because the economy is suddenly doing so much better. Really?
The latest Bank of Canada statement just confirmed that Canada's economic growth remains sluggish and uncertain. Mr. Harper's growth record is, in fact, the worst since the 1930's. Statistics Canada is reporting 248,000 more Canadians are without jobs today than before the recession.
So what's the real reason for the Conservatives now swallowing themselves whole on EI payroll taxes, after persisting with these wrong-headed tax increases for the last three years?
It may finally have dawned on Mr. Harper that punishing employment - i.e., making job creation more difficult year-after-year - is really not smart economic policy at a time when Canada is trying to recover from a recession.
Over the past year, more than anyone else, Justin Trudeau has focused relentlessly on the economic pressures squeezing the middle-class. He has emerged as the leading advocate for middle-class Canada.
Cancelling further Conservative payroll tax hikes is Mr. Harper's way of playing catch-up.
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
