Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to take action in the upcoming economic update to cancel tax increases and counter inflation, said Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre at a press conference on Sunday.
“Inflation is always the result of too many dollars chasing too few goods,” said Poilievre. “And thus it is here again with Trudeau’s inflation tax.”
Poilievre said the Canadian government needs to cancel all tax increases that are scheduled for Jan. 1. Among these are payroll taxes and the carbon tax.
Poilievre argued that increases to the payroll tax would punish workers for working and employers for hiring. There are currently one million jobs in Canada that remain unfilled.
He went on to say that increases to payroll taxes demonstrate the irony of Trudeau’s economy by paying people not to work and punishing them when they do.
Poilievre added that the carbon tax should not go up because people are struggling to fuel their cars and heat their homes and that the government needs to phase out the deficits that are fuelling inflation.
He stated that Trudeau needs to cancel the $100 billion in spending that he plans to add to pre-existing budgets, end all permanent new programs and bring spending back to pre-COVID-19 levels.
Poilievre said the temporary additional funding was necessary during lockdowns, but now spending has to go back to normal, and deficits need to drop to zero.
“Conservatives demand a clear plan to eliminate the inflationary deficits that are driving up the cost of living,” he said. “Our demands are very simple: less tax, less deficits, less inflation, more paycheques.”
Canada’s inflation rate hit an 18-year high of 4.7% in October, according to Statistics Canada.
This inflation rate is the highest the country has seen since February 2003.
Statistics Canada also reported that all eight categories of goods tracked by the department have been affected by rising costs.
