The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois will vote against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s planned sales tax holiday, dismissing the policy respectively as a “tax trick” and gift to wealthy Canadians who will now get their champagne at a cheaper price.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters Thursday that while he’s in favour of tax cuts, he doesn’t believe the two-month tax break counts as one.
“This isn’t a tax cut. This is an inflationary, two-month temporary tax trick that will drive up the cost of living,” the Conservative Leader said.
He said his party would vote against the legislation and instead advocate for their proposals to cancel the consumer carbon price and remove the federal sales tax on new homes. Both of which would be permanent changes, Mr. Poilievre noted.
Despite the Conservatives’ and the Bloc’s opposition to the policy, Bill C-78, dubbed by the Liberals as a Tax Break for All Canadians Act, is expected to be passed by the House of Commons on Thursday with the support of the NDP.
Explainer: What’s included in the GST cuts and what isn’t?
The legislation lifts the federal sales tax on some goods from Dec. 14 to Feb. 15 and is expected to cost the treasury $1.6-billion. Included among the items getting the tax relief are Christmas trees, kids diapers, clothing and toys, junk food, beer, wine, and store-bought, catered and restaurant meals.
In provinces where the sales tax is harmonized, the full sales tax will be lifted, whereas provinces that collected federal and provincial sales tax separately will only have Ottawa’s portion of the tax removed.
The minority government is expected to get the bill passed in just two days because the NDP has agreed to support the legislation as well as a motion from Government House Leader Karina Gould that allows the bill to circumvent the standard process. It will skip the usual practice of a review by a standing committee – such as hearing from witnesses – and will instead only be debated on the floor of the House of Commons.
The Bloc’s finance critic and MP, Gabriel Ste-Marie, told the House on Wednesday that while her party supports the permanent removal of sales tax from things like kids' diapers, they have “serious reservations” about eliminating the levy “on champagne and fancy restaurants, where only the rich can afford to go.”
“The proposed measure seems to benefit the rich more than anyone else,” he said.
Mr. Ste-Marie also cited concerns raised by small business owners about the logistical headaches of twice changing their payment processing systems in a short time period to comply with the changes.
The Liberals were initially planning to pass both the sales tax break at the same time as a plan to send $250 cheques to working Canadians making less than $150,000 annually. However, the minority government didn’t get support for the policy from any other opposition party.
The Bloc and NDP both said they would support the cheques if they were sent to more people, including retirees.
With a report from Bill Curry.
