What do we get for our low taxes and supposed affordability measures? A less healthy, fractured country

Posted on July 17, 2025 in Governance Debates

Source: — Authors:

TheStar.com – Opinion
July 17, 2025.   By Danyaal Raza, Contributor

Death and taxes. As a family doctor, I work everyday to delay the former but could not do it without the latter. Taxes pay for the hospitals my patients’ use, for the tests I order and for the income I earn.

Politicians often describe taxes as a “burden.” When elections come around, so do promises of “relief.” But are taxes such a terrible disease?

In reality, Canada’s taxes are intentionally low. Their low level may instead be responsible for making life more expensive, less affordable and yes, even for making some of us sick.

If Canada were in the European Union, something more and more of us wish were true, we would be in the bottom fifth for taxes. France and Germany, the EU’s largest members, are at or near the top alongside Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands.

These same higher tax countries also spend more on public services. This includes higher rates of public spending on health care and social programs, as well as lower rates of income inequality.

Taken together, these political choices result in countries and communities with longer, healthier and happier lives. That includes universal health care systems that include universal drug plans, more robust social assistance, and stronger labour protections for workers.

In Canada, 6.5 million people don’t have access to a family doctor. Affordable housing is out of reach for so many. Young Canadians are struggling with university and college tuition. And income inequality in Canada is at the highest level ever recorded. It takes one of Canada’s richest CEOs less than two hours to make what the average worker earns in an entire year.

In the face of this crisis, Prime Minister Mark Carney has cancelled a modest capital gains tax increase, introduced “middle class” tax cuts that offer the greatest payments to higher income earners and capitulated to Donald Trump by cancelling a long-awaited digital services tax.

This will result in almost $52 billion of lost public investment over the next five years.

In making these choices, we are missing critical chances for nation building. Instead of addressing the shortage in access to primary and acute health care, expanding universal pharmacare, bolstering public education and supporting our youngest citizens with early learning, we are funding tax cuts.

Nonetheless, the prime minister is still choosing to significantly increase public spending in other areas. For example, his commitment to spend 5 per cent of GDP on national defence. Is this responsible if it triggers predictable cuts to other areas, because of a lack of public funds?

Recent polling shows Canadians are overwhelmingly supportive of a wealth tax. Many doctors have supported higher taxes on high income earners before. Now, a new group of Canadians called ”Patriotic Millionaires” are calling for higher taxes on the wealthy.

Not everyone is in favour of higher taxes and more public investing. Wealthy individuals are often the first to speak against higher taxes, sometimes threatening to move their money elsewhere. In the U.K., efforts to reduce tax avoidance were threatened with a “Millionaire Exodus.” The government pushed through, and in the end only 0.3 per cent of millionaires chose to say “goodbye.” The same results have been found in other places too.

In the face of this, Carney’s tax policy is even more frustrating; there are clear alternative policy choices. A proposed wealth tax is being talked about, a road map for expanding primary health care has been laid out, and many wealthy Canadians are asking for higher taxes.

This is all possible, but we need more funds. Even the PM appears to favour a more European approach, recently describing Canada as the “most European of non-European countries.”

So far, we’re going in the wrong direction. It doesn’t have to be this way. While it may be true that the only certain things in life are death and taxes, it is also true taxes help us live better — and healthier — lives.

Danyaal Raza is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/what-do-we-get-for-our-low-taxes-and-supposed-affordability-measures-a-less-healthy/article_53d85d09-d41a-4fa5-83a0-74b827e6e5f0.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a02&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=top_18233

Tags: , , , , ,

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2025 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Governance Debates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply