There are only two ways to create more wealth and prosperity: we can either work more or work more efficiently through increased productivity. Investments in R&D, innovation, more efficient production processes, machinery and equipment are critical to improvements in productivity and living standards.
Improved productivity leads to better, higher-paying jobs, and therefore a higher standard of living. And in a context where there are manpower shortages in many sectors, investment is a way to increase production without necessarily having to employ more workers.
Unfortunately, in the last decade, Canada’s business climate has become less and less welcoming to both domestic and foreign investors, business investment has gone down, and our productivity is lagging that of most other industrialized countries. This slowdown of productivity, coupled with the Trudeau government’s mass immigration policies, means that we have more and more people to support with a stagnating economy. Instead of growing, GDP per capita and our standard of living are declining.
More government intervention in the economy is not the answer to our economic challenges. Every time the government takes an additional dollar in taxes, or borrows it, this is a dollar that individuals or businesspeople will not be able to spend or invest.
A People's Party government will:
Eliminate all corporate subsidies and other inefficient government interventions (bailouts of failing companies, regional development grants, conditional loans and loan guarantees with an implicit subsidy, tax credits, etc.) that unfairly support some companies or business sectors. This will generate savings of tens of billions of dollars every year.
Gradually reduce over the course of one mandate the corporate income tax rate from its current 15% down to 10%. When completed, this measure will make about $16 billion available to businesses, allowing them to increase salaries or invest in productivity improvements. (According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s Ready Reckoner website, July 2023.)
Over the course of one mandate, gradually abolish the personal capital gains tax by decreasing the inclusion rate from the current 50% down to 0%.
End the Trudeau government’s policy of mass immigration as a solution to manpower shortages (see policy on immigration), and focus instead on encouraging businesses to invest and improve their productivity.