In Canada, the provinces are actually responsible for healthcare under our constitution. But the federal government interferes, and sends money to provinces. This often just promotes their own agenda. There’s a federal healthcare transfer payment, which isn’t necessarily spent on healthcare when provinces receive it. And the federal government actually sent money to provinces to implement vaccine passports. This wouldn’t happen under a PPC government.
The Plan:
We will eliminate the federal health transfer payment, along with the GST at the same time. The GST is about equal to the transfer payment, which has ballooned over the years to about $43 Billion. This massive increase hasn’t produced tangible results.
The Benefits:
The provinces will likely increase their PST to make up for the lost health transfer revenue. So in Saskatchewan, our PST goes from 6% to, say 11%. Maybe it can be reduced to 10%. But let’s assume that total sales tax stays the same. Here’s why that’s better than today’s situation:
All the sales tax revenue stays in SK and our own provincial government uses this money for health care, without meddling from Ottawa. In the case of vaccine passports, SK would have been far less likely to implement them if they weren’t “bribed” by Ottawa. And if healthcare in SK is inadequate – call your MLA and demand improvements ! There’s no buck-passing and blaming Ottawa anymore. There’s an incentive to be innovative and cost-effective, which may include some private health care options which would be paid for by health insurance if provincial medicare didn’t cover them. People would have more and better options.
Certainly the tax system becomes simplified which always is more efficient – fewer highly paid civil servants in Ottawa to manage GST – and merchants would be happy to have simpler taxes to deal with….one sales tax instead of two.
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