POLITICAL LOWLIGHTS OF 2014 – #6: Job Tax Credits – not working for the Liberals or Conservatives

In 2014, we saw a Conservative government plagued by scandals, out of touch with challenges facing Canadians and preoccupied with photo-ops and their own partisan interests. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals fail to hold Conservatives to account and, after two years, we still have no idea where they stand on key issues.

A year’s worth of scandals and ineptitude condensed into our annual list of the top political lowlights of the year... LOWLIGHT #6: Job Tax Credits – not working for the Liberals or Conservatives

Earlier this year, Finance Minister Joe Oliver announced a tax credit for small businesses that was designed, in theory, to create 25,000 employment years for a $500 million dollar price tag. However, the Parliamentary Budget Officer calculated in September that the credit would create only 800 jobs, and this on top of the Conservatives’ employment insurance strategy that will lead to the loss of 9,000 jobs over the next two years.

The Liberals somehow found themselves in a similar situation. Last September, Justin Trudeau unveiled a plan to create 176,000 jobs by giving businesses a break on employment insurance premiums for new hires. How much did he plan to spend on this initiative? Well, $225 million, according to the Liberals. But then Statistics Canada put the price tag at well over $1 billion, and in the words of economist Stephen Gordon, the Liberals EI strategy was revealed as nothing but a “gimmick”.

Any way you look at it, the so-called Conservative and Liberal job creation plans were a fiasco.

Canadians deserve better. And after nine years of Stephen Harper, Canadians just can’t afford to wait for Justin Trudeau to get ready.

Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats can be trusted to hold Conservatives to account while fighting for families and proposing common sense solutions for issues they are facing every day.