New Democrats condemn corporate income tax cuts in face of mounting deficit

OTTAWA – Today New Democrat Finance Critic Thomas Mulcair and Industry Critic Brian Masse revealed a $170 billion loss of foregone federal revenue due to the government’s implementation of steady corporate income tax cuts.

The amount of revenue that will be lost as a result of these cuts is equal to the recent TD Bank forecast of the total federal deficit over the next 5 years.

Harper has continued the corporate income tax cutting regime, first instituted by the Liberals, cutting the corporate income tax rate from 29.12% in 2000 to 22.12% in 2007 and has scheduled further cuts reducing the rate to 15% by 2012.

“How can the Prime Minister sleep at night when he’s announcing a $50 billion deficit at the same time as he’s just giving away much needed revenue?” asked Mulcair. “Hard working Canadians are making sacrifices to help pull us through this recession and yet this government is cutting slack to those who need it the least,” he added.

“It is more than a coincidence that the deficits over next few years totals almost exactly the loss of revenue by the corporate tax cuts starting in 2001 and running through 2012, it’s complete financial mismanagement,” said Masse. “It’s completely reckless, Harper is borrowing from future generations while jeopardizing our capacity to deal with present challenges,” he added.

The total foregone revenue, from 2001 to 2009 inclusive, is over $86 billion.