How We Pay for It
This isn't fantasy football; this is very real macroeconomics affecting the lives of nearly 40 million people.
We genuinely understand the unfortunately limiting fiscal realities of the capitalist economy in which we operate, so here's how we propose paying for all these social programs:
First - The Hard Costs
Let's rip off the band-aid and start with the bad news: properly funding social programs (e.g., education, healthcare, welfare) means significantly increasing government spending.
The biggest proposed change, a universal basic income (UBI), would add as much as $51 billion dollars to the federal budget. At first glance, that sounds like an unsustainable expense, but let's do the hard work to look at the economic science behind one proposal to sustainably fund UBI.
Without increasing personal income taxes for middle class or lower-income families, as proposed by UBI Works[source], we could significantly increase taxes in three key areas:
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The financial sector (e.g., banks, insurance companies, investment companies)
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Large companies operating in Canada
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Ultrawealthy Canadian individuals (e.g., billionaires and hundred-millionaires)
The key point is that likely this won't cost you a dime.
By hyper-targeting these three groups with large increases, we can ensure no impact to individuals earning less than $100K/year (91% of Canadian tax filers) and only a small impact to those earning more than $100K but less than $150K/year (the next 6% of Canadian tax filers), meaning little impact to 97% of Canadians.
Second - The Indirect Benefits
Research estimates the annual economic impact in Canada caused by poverty is between $73 - $86 billion[source], with lost productivity representing nearly 75% of the net loss and $7.5 billion in additional healthcare costs. Not only would universal basic income dramatically reduce poverty in Canada, we would grow GDP and reduce the strain on our overworked healthcare system.
As noted by UBI Works, while these downstream benefits by themselves could more than offset the hard costs, our proposed costing for this program doesn't even need to consider these massive indirect benefits to balance the numbers.
We can fully fund a universal basic income program by raising taxes for banks, large corporations, and ultrawealthy Canadians.
Most Importantly - The Direct Benefits
We're talking about a growing group of our fellow humans living in Canada. These are real people living in tent cities through increasingly harsh Canadian winters - they are not just a cost consideration when balancing our budget!
If there's a responsible way to solve this problem without negatively impacting the already struggling low- and middle-income families we ethically must do it.
But This Is Just One Idea
While the RPC supports many aspects of this particular proposal, it is just one of many great ideas for achievable changes that we could make today to properly fund social programs in Canada for ourselves and for future generations.
We also believe unequivocally in trusting the science - which shows us eliminating poverty is not only the best ethical decision, but it's the best financial decision, too.
Poor vs. Ultra-Rich, not Left vs. Right
Inflation, sparked by the pandemic, has taken even more money out of hard-working Canadians pockets - and put it straight into billionaire's vaults.
The number of people experiencing homeless is growing. Lineups at food banks are longer than ever. We're headed for another economic disaster not seen since the 1930s.
Don't be fooled by the distraction-of-the-day. We have to focus. Those in power deflect and delay progress from comfortably atop their massive bank accounts while an increasing number of Canadians struggle.
They may have most of the money, but we have most of the votes.