The following letter is addressed to South Okanagan – West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings.
As a constituent and senior living on a fixed income I am sending you this letter to advise you of my feelings regarding the Trudeau government’s upcoming tax increases and the increases in pay that you and your fellow NDP MPs have supported.
First let me say that an MP’s current salary of $189,500 is, in my opinion, already an exorbitant salary and that the Prime Minister’s salary of $379,000 is outrageous, especially considering that there are millions of Canadians who are suffering financially at this time, many of whom are living, no existing, either on or below the poverty line.
It is especially insulting to those Canadians that on April 1 2023 there will be an increase in MP’s pay of $5,100 and an increase in the PM’s salary of $10,200, while at the same time imposing an increase in the tax on gasoline of 14 cents per litre and 12 cents per cubic metre on natural gas.
Gasoline and natural gas are, for most of those existing on meager incomes and on or below the poverty line, basic necessities of life, as is food.
Given the inflationary cycle in which we find ourselves in Canada and which was, in large part due to the Trudeau government’s terrible fiscal policies of deficit spending and debt creation, millions of Canadians now find themselves faced with not only increasing inflationary pricing on their basic food items, but now also on their most basic heating and vehicle fuel supplies. An increase in taxes will cost the average family between $402 and $847 this year, even after rebates.
All of this does not take into consideration that federal alcohol taxes will also increase on April 1 by a whopping 6.3 per cent, without even a vote in parliament.
It must be noted here that most of the Trudeau deficit spending and debt creation has been fully supported by the NDP. Especially since the NDP and Liberal agreement of support has been implemented.
It is unconscionable that given the terrible stress that average Canadians’ incomes are being put under by inflation alone, notwithstanding the increases in taxation that are imminent, that MP’s would even consider giving themselves an increase in salary.
In conclusion, compounding the pain and stress that average Canadians are suffering already with high inflation on their basic staples of food, imposing tax increases on their basic energy needs is cruel and only serves to increase their suffering.
Add to that the blatant middle finger of MP’s and the PM’s salary increases at the same time and on the same dates as the tax increases, and we are left with the perception that neither the NDP nor the Trudeau Liberals have any concern for the plight of the average Canadian family, and indeed have nothing but contempt for their constituents.
A.R. Wilson, Osoyoos
