More barriers for those looking to join the middle class

Dear Editor,

We constantly hear our Liberal government refer to “helping the middle class and those working to join it.” Their actions seem to do just the opposite. Their proposed budget for 2017 is littered with yet another slew of barriers for those looking to improve their lot in life.

Currently, those who choose to use public transit, in an effort to save money and reduce their carbon footprint, are eligible for a 15% Public Transit Tax Credit. This budget proposes to eliminate this incentive effective July 1, 2017. This will make getting to work more expensive for nearly 2 million Canadians.

Forget about filing your old bus passes away – the Liberals no longer encourage you to use public transit. In fact, they’ve even gone after ride sharing services, like Uber, and are going to start charging GST/HST on July 1, 2017. Heel-toe express it is, I guess.

However, my personal favourite is the confirmation of their decision to force Canadians to report the disposition of principal residences on their taxes. Although this is supposedly to improve compliance and administration of the tax system, something tells me this is the Liberals putting out their feelers to gauge how much revenue could be generated from forcing Canadians to pay capital gains tax when selling their own personal homes.
These are some hard pills to swallow, especially for young Canadians. I would normally suggest drinks on me but, you guessed it, the Liberals are also increasing taxes on wine, spirits and beer. Cheers Canadians.

Conor Amyot