Critics caution NDP after throne speech
Posted Jun 16, 2015 7:24 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The throne speech delivered by the NDP government Monday has received mixed reviews from a tax watchdog.
The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation is pleased the NDP announced some accountability reforms within government, but they aren’t happy about more spending.
Spokesperson Paige MacPherson says the party needs to take a harder look at their ledgers before the full budget is released in the fall.
“We know they’re facing a large deficit with some of the highest spending per capita in any province so it would have been nice to see some cost savings as well,” she said.
MacPherson also cautions recent history shows higher corporate taxes don’t necessarily lead to more government revenue, so they will not likely cover off all the spending increases the NDP has committed to.
Meanwhile, Mount Royal University Political Scientist Duane Bratt says the speech is about what he expected.
“All this speech did when it listed the priorities is to identify everything that they ran on, and that they plan on implementing. So, campaign finance reform, increasing corporate taxes, getting rid of the flat tax, and a royalty review, and an increase in the minimum wage laws,” he said.
Bratt says big business is likely not pleased with the throne speech, but they didn’t support the NDP in the first place.
