Harper's Premium Hikes Should Take a Hike

NDP REALITY CHECK: Premium Hikes Should Take a Hike

Jim Flaherty’s recent decision to halve his intended EI premium hikes is only a half step in the right direction. While Conservatives see a long-term revenue problem, New Democrats see an urgent Canadian jobs crisis.

Increasing payroll taxes on workers and businesses in these shaky economic times has always been wrong, as the New Democrats have repeatedly pointed out in the House:

Every economist out there, every student who studies economics, every person who understands fiscal responsibility knows it is payroll taxes and income taxes that are a drain on our society. It is simply wrong that hard-working people have to pay those exorbitant taxes, yet the multinational corporations get further tax cuts.
– Peter Stoffer, October 7, 2011, Hansard

We have seen over the years the large giveaways to large corporations and money being taken from the small businesses which will be facing a payroll tax in the New Year. [The Conservatives] believe in taking money away from small businesses and families, taxing them, and giving it to their friends. Frankly, that is not fair.”
– Jasbir Sandhu, October 17, 2011, Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives can say what they want, but a job-killing tax hike is still a hike, even if it is a little smaller. The Conservatives, with their friends from the big red tent, have taken more than $57 billion in EI funds from hard-working Canadians. Their priorities are all out of whack. They chose to give billions of dollars away to big corporations, while raising the payroll tax on businesses. With the recovery stalled, how many more job losses are acceptable to the government: 10,000, 20,000, 60,000?
– Yvon Godin, September 30, 2010, Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister does not get it. The HST is unfair and it is an 8% increase that is too expensive. The same is true for the EI premium increase, yet he is planning to increase EI premiums by $15 billion, which will mean employers will have to pay $884 more per year per employee, and workers will have to pay an extra $632 per year. He does not want to call it a tax increase, but that is what it is. Economist Dale Orr says, “If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck”.
Why is the Prime Minister intent on discouraging employers from hiring Canadians in a recession by talking about raising a payroll tax?
– Jack Layton, October 06, 2009, Hansard

Will Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty listen to common sense and stop their harmful EI payroll hikes during these challenging economic times?
Or will the out-of-touch Conservatives continue with their head-in-the-sand approach to the jobs crisis?

 My name is David Murray and I am currently on City Council in the City of Pitt Meadows British Columbia.
I ran Federally for the New Democratic Party in 2011 in Abbotsford and with the great team we had in place had the distinction of being the only riding in Western Canada that doubled our NDP vote!
I am the Editor of the Pitt Meadows Today Community Online Newspaper which together with its sister papers the Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Langley Today are receiving 250,000 hits a month!
http://www.pittmeadowstoday.ca/


My family goes back to the CCF-NDP party circa October 1935 as my father "Bud" Murray worked on Tommy Douglas's first campaign!


I am a union activist for CUPE and sit as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Fraser Valley District Council and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Fraser Valley Labour Council (CLC)