Juno News - Why Carney’s “tax cut” still hurts Canadians

00:00:00.000 welcome to the fighter with chris sims i am chris sims i'm the alberta director for the

00:00:09.960 canadian taxpayers federation it's that time of year everyone is getting ready to celebrate the

00:00:15.580 holidays and christmas and they're gearing up for new years now to most normal people

00:00:21.140 we start thinking of resolutions like eating better taking better care of our health perhaps

00:00:25.900 trying to save some money and there's the rub right because there's the government with its

00:00:31.500 handout or maybe sometimes even giving you a tax break one can hope right we've got a great guest

00:00:38.640 coming up in just a second but first a word from our sponsor look folks it's time to modernize

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00:01:18.100 okay so there's a lot of new year's tax changes coming up in the next calendar year and of course

00:01:25.180 the gentleman behind that report is my colleague and friend franco terrazzano he's joining us now

00:01:30.780 he's the federal director for the canadian taxpayers federation we've got him stationed in mordor

00:01:35.960 also known as ottawa franco just hit me what are the major new year's tax changes that we can expect

00:01:42.680 after january one hits look high level it's it's a bit of a mixed bag in the new year okay there's

00:01:48.440 some good news there's some bad news for taxpayers in 2026 so on the one hand you have the federal

00:01:53.960 government cutting income taxes but on the other hand you have the federal government hiking payroll

00:01:58.920 taxes on the one hand you have the government cancel the consumer carbon tax but on the other hand you

00:02:04.400 have the federal government hammering canadian businesses with a higher industrial carbon tax okay so

00:02:09.820 you know what carney is giving with his left hand he's taking away with his right hand now overall

00:02:15.460 if you look at the current state of canada if you look at the affordability you look at the economic

00:02:19.200 crunch uh this doesn't go nearly far enough we need massive serious tax cutting and if you want to

00:02:25.460 talk about a new year's resolution carney's new year's resolution the new year's resolution for ottawa

00:02:30.220 should be to embark on a massive tax cutting campaign to make life more affordable and to help get our

00:02:36.760 economy firing on all cylinders yeah i was just chatting with some family over the weekend and

00:02:41.760 somebody had posted one of those memes of well if y'all kids would have just lived within your means

00:02:46.440 like they did in the 1960s you'd all have mansions by now and it was crazy nonsense because frankly even

00:02:52.500 just our tax burden has gone crazy over the last few generations now we don't need a whole history less

00:02:58.180 going back to then but can you just give us a state of play of you'd mentioned payroll taxes

00:03:03.240 explain what payroll taxes are why they are taxes and where does it balance out like will the average

00:03:10.100 person still wind up saving a couple of bucks on this income tax cut or will it be a wash well look

00:03:16.420 uh income tax versus payroll tax so payroll taxes are are a form of income tax right it comes off your

00:03:21.800 paycheck you notice it kick in in the new year beginning of january and it's what the government

00:03:26.500 forces you to pay through the cpp the canada pension plan nei but it is a tax right there is no way of

00:03:33.140 getting around it uh you are forced by the government to pay this amount of money uh from

00:03:38.780 your paycheck it is a mandatory tax that the government takes off of your paycheck every

00:03:43.680 single year okay so payroll taxes this year uh for a worker making 85 000 or more uh payroll taxes

00:03:51.180 are going to cost you about 5 770 bucks but your employer is also so the business you work for is

00:03:57.880 also to force uh to pay payroll tax as well so you're you're losing about 5 700 bucks right off

00:04:04.200 your paycheck uh your employer is also forced to hand over about 6 200 bucks so this year's payroll

00:04:11.380 tax hike chris is about 262 for that worker making 85 000 or more now uh you ask a great question how does

00:04:20.340 that compare with the income tax well it depends on your income but essentially you're really no better

00:04:27.520 no less right it depends on your income but you're really not getting much tax relief when you look

00:04:32.500 at both of those measures the income tax cut and the payroll tax hike so the income tax the average

00:04:37.980 taxpayer will save about 190 bucks next year again depends on income but again that payroll tax increase

00:04:44.740 for that worker making 85 grand or more is going to cost you an extra 262 bucks so you're pretty well

00:04:51.680 square you know it's a small difference here or there that's so annoying uh you bring up the employer

00:04:57.340 element of it and i think a lot of folks who've only ever worked salary don't think of that like

00:05:02.600 it's so easy to just forget what kind of an impact that will have like on your employer a that means

00:05:07.940 that's money that they can't give you as a raise exactly there it is right there yeah there it is

00:05:12.260 right there right so uh obviously it hurts small businesses the most right like that's just thousands

00:05:17.780 of dollars per each of those employees that the small business has to fork over to the government

00:05:21.960 but really it's also a tax on the worker because that's like the government the businesses put

00:05:27.080 aside a certain amount of money that they would pay into an employee right well if they have to then

00:05:31.280 pay 6200 bucks to the government that's 6200 bucks that you're not getting as the employee so i love that

00:05:38.000 you bring that up even the tax on a business is a tax on the worker yeah because where else is the

00:05:45.100 money gonna go that's so frustrating okay so we've established payroll taxes or taxes we've established

00:05:50.020 that it's going to be a wash except for on the employer side of things which is again money that

00:05:54.620 they can't use to either give that employee a raise put back into improving their business perhaps lower

00:06:00.000 their prices all that jazz so again more money being taken out of businesses employers and employees

00:06:06.240 workers pockets for the new year eventually maybe it'll be a wash with the payroll taxes included

00:06:11.660 um question on the carbon tax and again i don't actually know the answer to this you were telling me

00:06:18.220 when we were doing the naughty and nice list that the industrial carbon tax does that go up january 1

00:06:24.400 and not april 1 the way that we were used to with the consumer carbon tax or is that just going to be

00:06:29.700 alberta no no uh so the industrial carbon tax from the federal government it works the same way as the

00:06:35.320 consumer carbon tax does in the sense that it applies to all canadians okay where it's different

00:06:41.760 than the consumer carbon tax is right in the regs it says that it's on a calendar year basis right so i think

00:06:47.840 everyone should take that to mean uh january through december so again the industrial carbon tax is going up

00:06:53.660 and that's the carbon tax on oil and gas steel fertilizer businesses among others um now look like we kind of

00:07:00.900 talked about this on the income tax versus payroll tax it's the same story on carbon taxes right you had the

00:07:06.680 government cancel the consumer facing carbon tax but in through budget 2025 through that memorandum of

00:07:13.340 understanding with alberta carney has given every indication that he's going to continue to crank up

00:07:18.380 the carbon tax that he hammers canadian's canadian businesses with and look the effect is twofold

00:07:24.440 number one a carbon tax is a carbon tax is a carbon tax it doesn't matter what type of lipstick

00:07:29.500 politicians smear on their carbon tax pig it makes your life more expensive okay and that is a feature of

00:07:35.880 the carbon tax it's not a bug but with this industrial carbon tax it also hurts our economic

00:07:41.320 competitiveness okay one point is the only point you need to know the u.s no industrial carbon tax

00:07:47.760 no national carbon tax from the white house so guess where our entrepreneurs are going to go are they

00:07:53.560 going to stay here in in canada where their carbon tax or are they going to set up shops south of the

00:07:57.760 border brutal um i gotta ask it's kind of a gut feeling after carney signed that mou and again

00:08:06.160 we don't got no pipeline like i'll i'll believe it when i see the pipeline maybe um and even then

00:08:12.440 carbon tax hikes i don't think are worth it because it's just a foot in the door um as soon as he

00:08:16.740 finished signing that mou in calgary he looked pretty darn pleased with himself when he went out and

00:08:21.100 talked to the media and said that now the industrial carbon tax is going to be six times higher do you

00:08:26.320 think that's going to go across the board like do you think that that's his his plan for every

00:08:31.480 province he wants it to be in essence six times higher than it is right now is that we're on track

00:08:36.880 for well look i'm so glad you flagged that because that's something that all canadians and all albertans

00:08:42.840 need to know of is right after signing the agreement with premier daniel smith he goes he does his own

00:08:48.100 press conference and he tells the media it means a more than six times increase in the industrial carbon

00:08:53.680 tax okay that was straight from carney uh but look i i think canadians have every reason to believe

00:08:59.460 that that doesn't just imply to albertans that that's going to imply to all canadians right all

00:09:05.320 canadians are going to have to be forced to pay that higher carbon tax on canadian business and you

00:09:10.260 know if we can think back to the election uh carney was essentially trying to spin canadians right

00:09:15.840 carney was like oh don't worry folks it's just going to be the big businesses that pay the carbon tax

00:09:20.840 blah blah blah well unfortunately for carney canadians understand the simple reality and a

00:09:26.540 legé poll showed that about 70 percent of canadians understand that a carbon tax on business uh most or

00:09:34.060 some of those costs will be passed on to consumers right because look when the government carbon taxes

00:09:38.800 refineries that makes your gasoline and diesel more expensive when a government carbon taxes your

00:09:43.940 utilities that makes uh your heating bill more expensive and when the government carbon taxes

00:09:49.160 fertilizer plants well that increases costs for farmers and that makes your grocery haul more

00:09:54.000 expensive this just sounds so similar to the consumer carbon tax it's just going to be really

00:09:59.600 hidden um i've been taking some pictures of some gas prices around town so right now if you get it

00:10:05.540 cheap it's about a buck 15 buck 14 a liter for regular um i'm going to be keeping a really close eye

00:10:11.200 on that when the calendar year rolls around to see if there's any increase there that you can actually

00:10:15.560 see i'm i'm frustrated because we ask our supporters here at the taxpayers federation and i'm very uh

00:10:22.740 safe in saying that they really want pipelines and they think that pipelines are a great idea

00:10:28.880 but they don't trust carney or ottawa as far as they can throw it so they they don't trust any of this

00:10:37.060 they don't want carbon taxes but they do want pipelines are we done with carbon taxes for now do you

00:10:42.120 want to move on to booze tax hikes for the new year yeah let's go on to booze tax uh booze tax hikes

00:10:49.140 well you know carney is uh continuing his predecessor's tradition of binging on booze taxes

00:10:56.380 right so uh federal alcohol taxes are again going to increase this year uh we're looking at a two

00:11:01.620 percent federal alcohol tax increase on april 1 2026 it looks like the tax hike will cost um taxpayers

00:11:08.720 about 41 million dollars in the next year but like that that even underscores how much money the

00:11:14.880 federal government has been taking from these alcohol taxes so in 2017 under the trudeau government

00:11:20.400 they brought in what's known as an alcohol escalator tax so every year federal alcohol taxes have been

00:11:27.760 cre have been increasing essentially with inflation but without a vote in parliament okay so two things

00:11:35.520 number one fundamentally undemocratic right if politicians want to take more money from you

00:11:40.880 they should at least have the spine to vote on that tax increase but that's not what's going on

00:11:46.080 with the alcohol tax hike since 2017 but number two right smaller tax increases over time year after

00:11:53.520 year after year lead to big tax increases for canadians so since 2017 this trudeau era undemocratic

00:12:02.800 escalator tax has cost taxpayers about 1.6 billion dollars so you see how these you know relatively

00:12:10.960 smaller tax increases over time end up being a huge bill for canadians over the long haul

00:12:18.000 really winds up nickel and diamond you to death um and you and i have done many videos right around new

00:12:23.200 years where we show the actual cost of taxes and i i was still blown away isn't it something crazy like

00:12:29.760 over half the price half the cost of beer is taxes wine 70 and how much is spirits like for hard liquor

00:12:37.440 yeah so look i don't have the most recent numbers off the top of my head but what is fair to say is

00:12:43.680 that about half the price of alcohol is taxes in canada right so you're buying yourself a drink you're

00:12:50.640 essentially buying one for the tax man as well right like half the price of of alcohol you know whether

00:12:56.160 it's the beer the wine the spirits you you add them together half the price is is just taxes to

00:13:01.520 to the different levels of government which is absolutely insane i mean welcome to canada folks

00:13:05.840 right like i mean these taxes sure can drive you to drink that's for sure but it's gonna cost you a

00:13:11.360 lot more oh sure will all right uh we've got an entire report on this right if somebody really wants

00:13:17.600 to nerd out and go take a look at other provinces and find out what major changes there are like here in

00:13:22.240 alberta there aren't really any major changes there are at city level but that would take us all year

00:13:27.840 to write up every single municipality's property tax increases uh cliff notes they're going up really

00:13:33.360 high in edmonton not quite as high in calgary for property tax increases where can people find more

00:13:38.880 data on new year's tax changes and what folks should be prepared for well chris how much time do we have

00:13:44.640 left like do you want me to give you a quick rundown or should i just tell people where to go

00:13:47.680 okay you can give us a quick rundown and then tell us all where to go franco yeah yeah so uh

00:13:52.800 look uh i'll give you some of the highlights and low lights from some of the provinces that are that

00:13:56.880 we're seeing real change so saskatchewan uh they set the industrial carbon tax rate to zero so kudos to

00:14:03.120 premier scott mo uh making saskatchewan the first carbon tax-free province in all of canada uh that's

00:14:08.960 saving families about hundreds of dollars now just east of saskatchewan is manitoba bad news there

00:14:16.000 because in the last budget they brought in this sneaky backdoor income tax hike known as bracket

00:14:21.600 creep when governments stop indexing tax brackets with inflation uh essentially the government's

00:14:27.360 using inflation to fatten its own coffers so bad marks over there in manitoba let's now go to quebec

00:14:33.680 quebec is the only province in canada with a consumer carbon tax right so uh all the other uh

00:14:40.640 provinces like british columbia all the other provinces under the federal jurisdiction

00:14:44.800 um they ended their consumer carbon tax back on april one quebec kept it uh some good no good

00:14:50.400 news will end here in nova scotia uh we saw the nova scotia government um cut its sales tax it cut

00:14:56.880 income taxes and it cut small business taxes so some good news for taxpayers there in nova scotia i know

00:15:02.880 uh our our friends out there in atlanta canada sorely need tax relief but those are the highlights

00:15:08.400 lowlights from the provinces folks if you want to learn more head over to taxpayer.com click on the newsroom

00:15:13.680 and you can see our new year's tax changes report for 2026. thank you thank you so much for joining

00:15:20.160 us today hey thank you chris sims once again that is franco terrazzano he is the federal director of

00:15:26.640 the canadian taxpayers federation my friend and colleague and seriously the the report is very

00:15:31.440 well written it's easy to understand it's in normal people talk and some of the numbers in there

00:15:36.720 might surprise you what franco points out there by the way is really important a lot of people might

00:15:41.760 think that the maritimes are oh you know cheap living or low cost of living blah blah blah actually

00:15:47.760 their tax burden is nuts like the combined sales taxes in most places of atlantic canada makes so

00:15:55.440 many things crazily expensive so yeah nice to hear that they're actually getting some form of tax relief

00:16:02.480 in nova scotia folks head on over to taxpayer.com and check out that report and you'll find out what you

00:16:08.160 can brace yourself for in the new year and of course this is where you get this kind of information is

00:16:14.000 right here on juno news if you haven't done so yet be sure to like this video subscribe to our youtube

00:16:20.240 channel and head on over to juno news and support independent journalism

Juno News - December 17, 2025

Why Carney’s “tax cut” still hurts Canadians

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