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Fibber McGuinty's 'No New Taxes' Promise:

Just Water, Tires and Cell Phones Under the Bridge

Fibber McGuinty is at it again. The Premier already has plans to break his recycled campaign promise not to raise taxes.

He has thrown it under the wheels with a proposed tire tax. He has hung up on it with a proposed tax on electronics including cell phones and computers. And he has tossed it under the bridge with talk of a new tax on bottled water-bottling. Before these new taxes are imposed, Ontario taxpayers may still be able to head them off if they refuse to be fooled by his political sleight-of-mouth.

During a major campaign speech last June, Premier McGuinty promised if re-elected that he would not raise taxes. Given his record this promise raised eyebrows. His credibility was immediately challenged given that he had made the exact same promise in 2003 in his signed pledge to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He is notorious for having broken the promise, having imposed the giant new $2.6 billion a year health tax. “Why should we believe you this time?” he was asked. His defence, “because I am in charge and I am not hiding a deficit”. So what is Mr. McGuinty’s defence now that he is proposing a new tire tax, a new cell phone and computer tax and a new water tax? In a political sleight-of-mouth he doesn’t call them taxes.

That defence didn’t work last time and it shouldn’t work this time. At first McGuinty tried to defend the health tax saying it was a premium not a tax. However, a cost to the taxpayer or purchaser imposed by government is a tax, regardless of what sneaky label is put on it. You can dress up a pig in tights and lipstick but at the end of the day it is still a pig. Like his original defence of the health tax, Mr. McGuinty is calling the tire tax, the electronics tax and the water tax ‘fees’ because he says in ‘some cases’ the money won’t be used for general revenue. Regardless, these “fees” are not voluntary and will certainly drain cash from the public and will go to government agencies or affiliates.

If the promise not to raise taxes wasn’t enough to convince MPPs not to impose these new taxes, there are strong economic arguments not to impose them. Ontarions are already over-taxed as the recent Fraser Institute study Tax Facts 15 reveals. According to the Fraser Institute the average family in Ontario already pays 46.1% of their income in taxes. This is more than food, clothing and shelter combined. Adding more taxes to this burden will hurt even more. Ontario is already close to the highest taxed province only trailing Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Quebec. These new taxes would only better enable the province to win the race to the bottom.

When Dalton McGuinty made this more recent cynical promise not to raise taxes during the last election campaign, Ontarions were reminded of the adage: ‘Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.’ Mr. McGuinty should be ashamed for having fooled Ontarions the first time. Let’s not have the shame put on us this time by allowing these taxes to be imposed. It is the well-being of us all that will suffer with his latest broken tax promise.