Summary
WHEN the GST is cut by one percentage point on July 1, it will open up "tax room" for the provinces to move into, if they dare. In Manitoba, Premier Gary Doer could declare that he needs money to finally fix hallway medicine, for example, and announce that he will increase the provincial sales tax by one point to capture the $180 million that Ottawa will be leaving on the table by cutting the GST. He could state what would obviously be true, which is that Manitobans would not be worse off than they were before the GST was cut and that they will soon be better off because hallway medicine is to be fixed finally after seven years of trying. This is not a facetious scenario. It is rather an illustration of the sea change Prime Minister Stephen Harper intends for fiscal relations in Canada -- provinces transparently raising the funds they need to meet their constitutional responsibilities, rather than having Ottawa do the dirty work for them.
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Extract
Editorial - the Coming Devolution
WHEN the GST is cut by one percentage point on July 1, it will open up "tax room" for the provinces to move into, if they dare. In Manitoba, Premier Gary Do...
See the full content of this document
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