CBC anchor Tom Murphy peered sternly into the camera during the six o’clock TV news on Tuesday to deliver the day’s top story: “Confirmation tonight of what many Nova Scotians have long suspected,” Murphy said with a knowing shake of his head. “We pay more in taxes than anywhere else in the country.”
“And that’s not the opinion of some anti-tax group. It comes right from the government in a report from the finance department,” chimed in co-anchor Amy Smith.
She then introduced reporter Paul Withers who told viewers the government report on taxes had been “hiding in plain sight since April when it was put on a Nova Scotia Finance Department website with zero fanfare.” As Withers talked about the 129-page report, the words “Highest Taxes in Canada” appeared on the screen. To hammer the point home, he declared: “The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is talking about another big finding in this report, namely that Nova Scotians pay the highest level of taxation anywhere in Canada.”
A multi-coloured bar graph filled the screen as Withers added, “The report shows when federal, provincial and local taxes are added up, Nova Scotians pay the highest share of GDP in Canada, just ahead of PEI.” He apparently meant that Nova Scotians pay the highest taxes as a proportion of provincial Gross Domestic Product, a standard measure of the total size of an economy. Withers then brought on Kevin Lacey, Atlantic Canada director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“Finally, the government itself is informing taxpayers,” Lacey said, “that they are being taxed higher than anywhere else in Canada. And I think it leads to calls for beginning to reduce these taxes so that we can make this province more competitive.”
Murphy, Smith, Withers and Lacey (a former aide to Stephen Harper) all seemed dead sure of their claims, but a close look at the provincial tax report shows all four were spouting a half-truth plucked out of context. They were also ignoring other parts of a massive, highly technical report.
What the tax report really says
“On average, Federal taxes paid by Nova Scotia residents are equal to the national average,” the report says on page 84, adding that “however provincial taxes as a share of nominal gross domestic product exceed the national average marginally.”
Yet the report also says: “Within Canada, Nova Scotia’s average total effective tax rate is third highest among the provinces.” That point was echoed by provincial finance minister Graham Steele, who told reporter Brian Flinn of allnovascotia.com on Wednesday that Quebeckers pay much higher taxes than Nova Scotians. He said that measuring taxes as a proportion of the provincial economy makes them look higher because Nova Scotia’s GDP is relatively small. In an apparent reference to another graph on page 88 of the report, Steele said when taxes are measured on a per person basis, Nova Scotia is actually way down the list.
James Sawler, who teaches economics at Mount Saint Vincent University, agrees that on a per capita basis, Nova Scotia does not have the highest taxes. He also points out in an email forwarded to The Coast that “the need for adequate health, education and social programs does not depend on GDP. Given that our GDP is smaller, if NS is to provide programs comparable to other provinces, we may need to tax a greater percentage of GDP.”
NS income tax rates lower for most
The conflicting claims over the technicalities of measuring tax levels have obscured other significant aspects of the provincial report. For one thing, it points out: “Individuals earning less than $30,000 per year comprise the majority of the population in Nova Scotia.” Yet, a chart on page 97 shows that people in that income bracket pay a lower rate of provincial income tax than in most other provinces. (Nova Scotia’s 8.79% rate is fourth lowest.)
The report also states that “it is clear that Nova Scotia’s income tax has a significantly more progressive rate structure than other provinces.” That means that Nova Scotia income taxes are more geared to ability to pay as people in higher income brackets are taxed at higher rates.
“We want to see those who can afford to pay, pay their fair share,” says Christine Saulnier of the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. “Nova Scotia is one of the leaders in the country in terms of progressive taxation and that should be something that we are actually proud of in this province.”
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2011.
So, then what’s going on with the CBC??Why are they giving us half of the information?
It is not just the CBC that reported this story, so there really is no need to single them out. The national post also has a story about this. Regardless of how the NS government wants to spin this, our taxes are high. When reading this you should also keep in mind that the data is from 2009 and does not include the increased sales tax that was put into place last summer. Regardless this is bad press for NS, pretty hard to attract business and talent when we are known as the “over taxed province”.
Daisy, the CBC has, for the last couple of years, moved away from their tradition of generally balanced news reporting and adopted the US tabloid style of creating sensational news where there is actually no story. This is just the latest example but you see it on the 6PM show just about every night.
As for the Coast’s take on the actual story, it is equally wrong. Nova Scotians who make middle income levels or above pay a crushing tax burden, far more than in other provinces. Someone who works hard and makes $100K annually pays several thousands more in provincial income taxes than would be the case in most other provinces. Add to that the 15% HST and the other various provincial taxes and fees and it is a sad story. We are overtaxed.
So who’s surpised the NDP apologist is backing DD and Steele. Anyone who lives here knows we’re being screwed taxwise and paying through the bunghole. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know this. What’s the matter Brucie, no anti-Harper shit? Wait that’s right Harper dropped the HST and DD raised it. BTW if anyone sees an orange blur, it’s Brucie.
Thanks for the CBC for actually talking about the tax issue. We pay way too much in taxes in Nova Scotia. Period. Just like a previous comment says above me, NOVA SCOTIA=BUNGHOLE… with the worst, most corrupt politicians in the country on any level (municipal, esp.). Maybe that can’t be quantified by statistics either, as I am sure there are arsehole politicians in all parts of the country, but the fact is is that we get shit for all that we put back into here and I am just glad someone is saying that we are taxed way too much. This shit has gotta end. someone has to be accountable for that, so I don’t give a rat’s ass if CBC was off by a couple of rankings
All the “per capita” and “per taxpayer” and “by share of GDP” numbers are misleading. If we’re going to compare taxes then the only valid comparison is for the same hypothetical person living and working in different provinces. This is pretty much what Bo Gus was getting at.
Now, I don’t know what the numbers would be if I had filled out tax returns for 2010 for all ten provinces, assuming that apart from living somewhere else that otherwise things would have been exactly the same. I’ll wager cash that NS wouldn’t come off so well in that kind of comparison. Maybe that humongous report has those kinds of numbers in it, but sure as hell CBC and Steele and Wark aren’t talking about them – they’re using the pseudo-numbers that help support political arguments.
The truth hurts….and Wark is in a lot of pain.
When will he write a column about the 35+ years of unfunded liabilities in the Teachers Pension Plan and the billions of extra payments from taxpayers ?
Nice one Bruce! When will The Coast smarten up and hire a non-partisan journalist? (If Bruce could even be referred to as a journalist). This NDP gov’t is ruining the NS ecomony. Yes previous gov’ts put us in the hole, however the NDP blaming previous administrations is getting very old. No matter how the spin doctors phrase it NS is the highest taxed province in Canada. Has there ever been a study done ranking individual taxes paid compared to services returned? I’d like to see how NS would rank for that one! Great work Kevin Lacey! The only half plucked truth is Graham Steele’s pompous sanctimonious contempt for the CTF and the taxpayers of NS!
“The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.”
Albert Einstein
I was interested when CBC released the Finance Department report on taxes. I’m glad they did.
It’s a good report with a lot of information well laid out.
CBC did a good job at pulling out the key measure of performance. Calculating taxes as a percentage of GDP gives a gauge of the “bang for the buck” we’re getting for our taxes. It has the benefit of being comparable across regions and different size economies because it is expressed as a percentage – a mathematical ratio.
The total taxes to GDP ratio graph is a measure of government performance and, as reported, NS is the worst in the country.
These are the Finance Department’s own numbers.
Why is our government so much less efficient and effective than other provincial governments?
We all love our friends, our home, our families and our province. We have a deal going in Nova Scotia. We give the government half our money and they invest it on our behalf – hopefully better than if we just kept the money and invested willy nilly ourselves. To do that they have to be efficient and effective.
This report says the government is not investing our tax dollars as well as other provinces. Let’s start there; accept there is a problem, and start working it out. We would all like a little more back for our taxes.
JWC: you make some good points. You’ll note that I called those indicators “misleading”, not useless. If the numbers are offered up with interpretation (e.g your comments with respect to the taxes/GDP ratio and services level) then they are OK. But when the discussion is about who has the *highest* taxes, compared by province, there is only one absolute number for any given taxpayer, and that’s how much of *their* income would they lose in NS as compared to the other provinces. Every other value is either a relative and/or aggregate derivative figure, and subject to interpretation.
There are NO technicalities in measuring *these* individual tax levels. Only the “fuzzy” derivative numbers have technicalities. There’s nothing intrinsically difficult about calculating what percentage of income remains after tax, in a dozen or two dozen carefully specified individual and small business example cases, in all ten provinces, for a given tax year. It’s simply not in the interest of governments to publish statistics of this sort, because they are absolute and unspinnable.
For true transparency you have to start out with absolute, real numbers. Publish those.
What is most shocking is that the majority of the population here makes less than $30,000 a year! Jezuz. No wonder people leave.
You’re right Realist. We rarely see the sum total of the taxes, percent or otherwise, we pay to government. Clearly it’s not secret, but no one is drawing our attention to it either.
The report also shows the myriad of tax credits and deductions that they use to direct and control the bit of money that they don’t take directly from us as taxes.
The report does have a lot of info: the shocking $30k average income is a bad thing; a good note is that Nova Scotia’s tax rate is very progressive with low rates for low incomes and high rates for high; a provocative note that the top 1% of income earners pay over 20% of the taxes.
It is a drag that the report got released without comment and then caught up in a silly bugger’s argument because the headlines were very simplified.
In a better world we could have a month of broadcast public discussions around the province about what this all means and where it’s taking us. People aren’t stupid, they just have difficulty getting this type of raw information so they can form personal opinions about how the government should work. This was an opportunity lost in spin.
Hi all: The Nova Scotia government cranks out a lot of useful information that doesn’t always attract much media attention. With all the cuts to newsrooms in recent years, NS journalists are too swamped to read many long reports. Here is a tax discussion paper released in January 2009 when the Conservatives were in power. It’s obviously written for public consumption unlike the technical overview of the tax system. For example, the discussion of “tax effort” and “tax yield” that begins on page 48 under the heading “Total Taxes in Nova Scotia” sheds a lot of light on the tax effort discussion and graph on page 88 of the more technical overview document. Here is a link to the discussion paper: http://www.gov.ns.ca/finance/site-finance/…
Whoops, forgot to mention that I have a further comment on this story on my new blog at http://www.mediaspin.ca
mediaspin is the right name and Brucie is one of the biggest spinners.
I’m sorry, but I am still shocked at the $30K figure. I shouldn’t be because when I look at jobs around here they pay in that range. And these are jobs that require at least a BA, which costs, oh, about $30K. Nova Scotians have been brainwashed to think they shouldn’t earn more than that because we have a great “quality of life.” Let’s see that story.
What about all of the insane consumption taxes here – are they part of this highest tax in the country indicator? They should be. I mean really, when a six pack of beer is $15, it is clear we are being raked over the coals by nanny state freaks – freaks like Bruce Wark and Graham Steele – the ones who know better, the ones who know how to take care of us with their bloated socialist tax and spend idealogoies…and don’t forget the rest of the socialist manifesto gang and their union buddies, who probably think we should raise taxes even higher because “we aren’t civilized enough” yet
Dartmouthy: I’ll up the ante: a friend of mine bought a 30-pack of Coors beer in Nashua for $12.80 this past weekend! I told him I hated him; we’re supposed to be grateful that the NSLC has a sale on Keith’s, a whole dollar off! So raped of our money we are!
Wordgirl: Wages are embarrassing around here, I’m not sure why/how employers get away with it. At the interviews, $ questions are met with “it’s a competitive wage with other positions in the area”…
A tangent comment, about those Target stores coming here, people are so excited about it because in the US there are so many deals. What are they smoking? Most products here are 15-25% higher even with the dollar at parity, how is Target going to lower prices? With high taxes on products entering Canada, I’m guessing Target is going to be just another store.
Yes, Bruce or Tim B. or someone please do a story on the sad state of wages here. I am talking private sector wages. Not the public sector, which pays its employees twice or even three times the amount private sector workers get for comparable jobs. Good for them, but everyone else shouldn’t get screwed so public sector workers can have great salaries, benefits, pensions and more.
Nova Scotians deserve higher salaries AND a great quality of life. You don’t have to make the choice.
Here’s a dandy little tool from Ernst & Young that lets you see income tax rates from all provinces and territories at a glance: http://www.ey.com/CA/en/Services/Tax/Tax-C…. You just type in your taxable income.
According to their calculations, on $50,000 taxable income a Nova Scotian would be the 2nd most highly taxed. Taxes in NS would be $11,441, just behind Quebec at $11,747. Add in our higher sales tax (15% compared to 13.92%), and I think it’s quite defensible to say that we have the highest taxes in Canada. More to the point, Quebec has many more services than we do, including low tuition and cheap daycare. Nova Scotia? Not so much.
I know the “it’s more progessive” taxation tripe is fodder for the Coast’s “crush the rich” cannons, but the bottom line is that (barely) middle class Nova Scotians take home $38,559 on a $50k income, while Ontarians take home $40,921 and British Columbians take home $41,153. The problem is that there just aren’t enough truly “rich” Nova Scotians to stick it to, and there are at least $2500+ reasons every year why middle class Nova Scotians should leave this province.
I wonder who’ll buy advertising in the Coast when there’s no one left making more than $30k a year?
Exactly.
I make $54K, which sounds great – but after taxes and mandatory deductions like a pension I can’t opt out of I may never see, I’m down around $32K. That is middle class? Fuck I can’t even afford a car, or a house… and I’m not living glamorously as a single Dad let me tell you. Socialists sure know how to make themselves feel warm and fuzzy inside – but where does it end? Why don’t I just hand my entire pay check over to the government instead? How civilized is that Mr Steele? lol. Then they can meter out an apartment stamp for the local apartment block, a food ration, public transit tickets – and maybe a subscription ticket for the local politburo press? Fuck off NDP! Fuck right off!!!!!
I hear ya Dartmouthy. I know people who make so-called “decent” money but they still work an extra job to try to get ahead. What happens? They have to pay more taxes. What’s the point of working extra and making more money when you’re just paying it out to someone else? Progressive taxation does nothing to promote ambition.
I am voting Tory next time.
The problem is that while Nova Scotia’s income tax system is progressive, we just don’t have enough rich people to pay at the highest levels. We have far fewer people earning over $100,000/year than other provinces (see that 2009 report at p. 34). Bruce nicely avoids the reality that middle income Nova Scotians carry a very heavy tax burden compared to other provinces. He also ignored the part that said Canadians of similar income levels shoudl pay similar tax rates.
Instead, as the report says, “a relatively large portion of income in the hands of lower and middle income households limits the province’s ability to raise revenues from these families while maintaining a progressive tax system.” This is by far the most damning part of the report: “Households earning between $60,000 and $70,000 are neither the most numerous nor the most affluent of groups in Nova Scotia, but the combination of their size and income makes them a substantial source of provincial and municipal revenues” (p. 38).
That’s what unsustainable. If you think families earning $60-$70k deserve to carry the biggest burden, then by all means–continue soaking them. Heaven help us if those earning under $30k should have to pay the same rates they do in Ontario or BC. It won’t last, of course. As the wise lady said–the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money. When middle income Nova Scotians realize they can earn $3,000+ more per year in other jurisdictions, you’re not going to keep them down on farm forever. Try balancing the budget then!
Good for you Wordgirl1: Go right ahead and vote Tory next time. They and the other big biz party the Liberals have only been in power here in NS for 142 of the last 144 years. Yet, you blame the NDP for our tax system! Federally of course, it’s been a full 144 years of Conservative and Liberal governments!
You lament the fact that a majority earns under $30k. Cheer up. The business news site allnovascotia carries a report today showing that things are actually pretty good if you’re a CEO here. For example, it says Bill McEwan, CEO of Sobeys got a 3.8% raise last year with “a pay pack worth $3.81 million, a $1.03 million salary, a $1.9 million cash bonus and equity worth $722,500.” And McEwan is not alone. allnovascotia carries a fairly long list of others like him.
No wonder that according to the OECD, Canada has one of the worst records as far as income inequality is concerned. The Toronto Star’s Les Whittington reported last Friday that the richest 3.8 per cent of Canadian households controlled 66.6 per cent of all financial wealth (not counting real estate) by 2009, up from 60.6 per cent in 2005. He also explained how Harper’s tax policies will likely widen the wealth gap. Read it and weep Wordgirl1: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article…
And here’s a link to highlights from the OECD report which say: “Income inequality increased significantly in the early 2000s in Canada, Germany, Norway and the United States.” Just scroll down to the “Did you know?” section — and by the way, the OECD is not by any stretch of the imagination, a leftist organization: http://www.oecd.org/document/4/0,3343,en_2…
Finally, the newly published book “Treasure Island: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens” by Nicholas Shaxson shows how rich individuals and companies escape taxes on trillions of dollars while middle-income taxpayers foot the bill. Amazon lets you look inside the book: http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Islands-Unc… (I bought my copy at Bookmark.)
I am glad CEOs make more than $30K!
Alas, Bruce, that list is not nearly long enough. That nice 2009 report puts it clearly. A smaller proportion of Nova Scotians make over $100k per year compared to elsewhere. That’s a fact–not just a list from allNovascotia.com.
Fewer rich Nova Scotians means fewer to tax progressively higher. The weasel word you use above is “average”–as in “Nova Scotia’s AVERAGE total effective tax rate is third highest among the provinces.” But, guess what? Depending on your actual income level, there are people in our province who have the privilege of paying the most. Plug $275,000 into the Ernst & Young calculator and bingo! You have to turn more than 50% of your earnings over to the state–the highest tax rate in country!
It’s hard to grasp, I know, but there is no magic money tree. In NS, the wealthy pay the highest rate of tax in the country. There are very few of them, and there is almost no capacity to tax them much more (that’s on the Finance website too). The “rich” you and Christine Saulnier are talking about are actually middle income earners ($50-$70k) who pay a disproportionately high rate of tax, higher than almost every other province. The lowest income earners pay less than other provinces, use more public services, and would bring in the least revenue even if their taxes were raised. This is not a recipe for long term financial health. It’s a recipe for depopulation.
What we need is a government that reduces our tax burden across all levels to the Atlantic Canadian average, and works toward the national average (or better). And we need government services equal to what that amount of taxation pays for–no more.
Couldn’t agree more beancounter – what we need is a home grown Ron Paul to cut the fuck out of government and bring taxes back to pre-Trudeau levels.
Brucie is too busy with his mouth attached to someone’s orange behind. Brucie since you like taxes so much I hope you’re going to give the government say an extra 10-20% of your pay.
Hey Beancounter, I see we’re up to 28 comments which is pretty good for an arcane subject like taxes that nobody really cares about. NOT!
Goddamn, sometimes I feel as though as a journalist, I do all the heavy lifting research that other people use to ride their hobby horses, you included. (And, as a retired journalism prof I usually do it for free.) What you call “that nice 2009 report” was something I led you to. And why not? It sheds light on the taxes we pay. At least you (and I) took the time to read it.
One bone to pick though. You say: “The weasel word you use above is ‘average’–as in “Nova Scotia’s AVERAGE total effective tax rate is third highest among the provinces.” That is not my “weasel word” as you put it. It’s drawn directly from that humongous technical overview of Nova Scotia’s tax system — the one Paul Withers and the Taxpayers Federation relies on to claim, falsely, that Nova Scotians pay the highest taxes in the country.
Well, it all depends, doesn’t it who you’re talking about. You may well be right when you say that: “The lowest income earners pay less than other provinces.” And since lower income earners are in the majority here, Nova Scotians generally pay lower provincial income taxes.
Your assertion that people in high income brackets pay half of their income in taxes is laughable — and everyone knows it. “Plug $275,000 into the Ernst & Young calculator and bingo! You have to turn more than 50% of your earnings over to the state–the highest tax rate in country!” Anyone making $250k can surely afford to hire an accountant to take advantage of the myriad of tax writeoffs and loopholes that reduce effective tax rates to less than the average schmuck pays on a middle income. Check out capital gains taxes for example.
While you are probably right that middle-income earners carry a disproportionally high rate of taxes, you fail to answer my point about tax avoidance mechanisms for the rich — the 3.8% who control more than two thirds of our national wealth.
No fair, Bruce! I remember looking at that report when it came out–but thanks to you for reminding me of it. Sadly, I’m actually the kind of guy that checks out stuff on the Finance Dept’s website from time to time–it’s quite useful in these kind of discussions. I find the demographic reports particularly interesting, although our pending population crisis is enough to keep you up at night.
I didn’t talk too much about tax avoidance because I don’t know enough about it. I did read a glowing reviewing of Shaxon’s book in a union newsletter (surprise), which gives me a sense of where he’s coming from. I will grant that high income earners have strategies to avoid tax. So do middle class people. I still think we have a problem in that there just aren’t that many people rich enough to stick it to, even if we enacted Sweden-level taxation. I read a great article in National Review a while back about how enacting crushing taxes on the wealhy wouldn’t even come close to solving the U.S.’s basketcase fiscal situation–no matter what percentage of the wealth they own. (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/262…). I have no reason to suspect we’d be different in kind, only in degree.
So, what to do about the accuracy of these tax stories? Well, you’re correct. It does depend on who you’re talking about. I think we could say any of the following:
Some Nova Scotians pay the highest taxes in Canada.
Nova Scotians pay higher taxes than other Atlantic Canadians.
Middle income Nova Scotians pay the highest (or second highest) taxes in Canada.
Middle income Nova Scotians pay a disproportionately high level of tax.
Middle income Nova Scotians support the state to a greater degree than other Canadians.
Low income Nova Scotians pay less than the average rate of taxes, but not by much.
Fair?
i think bruce wark and others at the coast have failed to see that it doesn’t really matter the rate of taxation in nova scotia is still TOO HIGH,number one or two in canada is still far too high…the ndp government is to blame and we need lower taxes to create and keep people from leaving on mass to other parts of canada where the taxation is far lower and fair
I’m in agreement with the folks who believe that the middle class in this province is being over-taxed. I also believe – as do some others – that arguing that the rich aren’t paying their fair share is pointless: it’s probably true but it’s not significant. Beancounter mentioned the NR study related to the super-rich in the US; I’ve read similar analyses.
The actual solution here is to *spend* less. Way less. Our health care expenditure is stratospheric precisely because Nova Scotians are some of the least fit, sickest people in the country. Rather than moan about health care costs why don’t we just take some responsibility? And despite the tripe we get from NSTU the fact remains that public education in this province sucks…so why are we surprised that so many Nova Scotians make so little money, and why the rest of us have to chip in so much to help them out? Also, why exactly are we spending so much money on twinning highways, fixing up voter-dense roads that don’t need fixing, and building out other unnecessary and expensive road infrastructure? Why does the province make an incredibly small amount from leasing Crown lands to private business? How come tens of millions of dollars are wasted every year in provincial IT?
The list goes on and on.
Just completed my taxes…paying in again. I am one of those upper middle class folks who continually bolster the income of the province to allow for programs that have nothing to do with me. Did I mention I love paying in extra to help out?
I have no kids but some programs to support children are necessary. The NDP has an odd skew on what is actually important and what is not however! I think education (BOTH primary and secondary) are absolutely critical to increasing the wages and investment attractiveness in this province. Mr. Dexter disagrees and would rather give Irving $302 million to help get them ready for the shipbuilding. (really…would Irving have walked away from a $25 billion contract without these forgivable “loans” from Darrel???).
NSCC is facing cuts due to the provinces cutbacks of around $6 million…meanwhile the Digby ferry to Saint John receives $6.5 million.
I drove by a large group of teachers/staff on Friday who were protesting educational cuts…very sad to see this.
BUT WAIT! Aren’t we paying a sizeable amount of taxes? Shouldn’t we be able to afford services comparable to our “poorer” neghbours in New Brunswick who pay less taxes? One would think so…the real question would (and should be) not how much taxes are being paid, but rather, where in Hell is the money going!
Did I mention that we have children starving in NS? Maybe we can fix that by giving millions of dollars to save a couple of jobs at a paper mill or by giving millions of dollars to companies who say they will invest here then leave after a couple of years without retribution or recompense for the money they received. In the meantime, while we wait for these well thought out plans to pay off, lets just get the public to donate their “extra” money to help these kids and a miriad of other worthy causes! It is absolutely pathetic that we have starving and uneducated people when the money coming into the province is so poorly spent.
Sorry to have veered off topic a little bit, but, the true question is why are we paying so much in taxes when there is so little returned in the way of services? Make it one or the other here please…low taxes with lower amount of services or high taxes with a high amount of services (like Quebec)….or perhaps somewhere in between but not the unbalanced model we currently have.
It is my first visit to Novia Scotia from the UK and to be honest I was shocked on the high tax on food, clothes, shopping and hotel, Novia Scotia is a place I have always wanted to visit but I cannot justify visiting this part of canada again as a tourist, I think serious thought needs to be given on your taxes if you want to encourage more tourism to Halifax.
2009 (when the report was published) was…now, what, 4, plus years ago? That was the beginning of the NDP/end of Tory? Since it’s been so long, have these numbers been updated?
Inquiry, it’s been roughly four years since this report was released (IE, 2009) which was, obviously, roughly around the point of the Tory transition out, NDP transition in. Has there been a more recent/updated report? Obviously, it makes sense for changes to occur over time, and I’m curious if there have been any reports released indicating changes?
Don’t delude yourselves into believing the populist, hate-inciting propaganda that the rich need to pay their fair share. The industrious, risk-everything rich pay more than their fair share. Creating jobs does more for poor people than politicians who use marxist propaganda to soak them. Rich people buy things, which also keeps store shelves stocked and people working at all levels of the economy. Rich people pay over half of all taxes used to feed the insatiable greed of an ever-increasing, in-your-face, ungrateful government and an entitlement-mentality people What is “fair share” anyway? What gives anyone the “right” to steal from another using your government to do it? Some poor sod worked 18-hour days all his life, risking everything, sacrificing family and social life, investing in his education with both money and time, so that some lazy slag and other coveteous losers not willing to do the same can play morally-indignant and claim a right to his limited-earning-years of labor (without contributing to it one wit or having the decency to thank him). Fair share, bullocks.
Many “poor” people have absolutely no skin in the game; that’s why they keep voting greedy, class-warfare, propagandist, marxist tyrants into office – trading their freedom so they can get some imagined revenge on rich people. You all need a morality check and the Ten Commandments would be a place to start. You’re already guilty of violating Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and Thou shalt not lie (because that’s what class-warfare entails). You’re projecting your greed onto the rich you vilify. Shame on you.
10-chan is wrong. Report released in 2011 and is two years old not four.
The Radical Left Wing Commie Coast denies NS pays high taxes, we should raise taxes even more! Embrace economic de-growth!
NDP fart-catcher Bruce Wark and the Commie Coast get your facts straight: N.S. HST 15%, Alberta HST 5%
Bruce Wark isn’t a journalist he’s a partisan NDP propagandist
Bruce you’re a Marxist relic, your comments on here read like commie propaganda from the 1930’s
Interesting. Just came across this thread in 2015. What I find most disturbing in the notion that “high earners” should foot the bill. Okay, so you spend, say 14 years in school (and I mean *beyond* high school) and get into significant debt, only to make a very decent living (200K+ let us say). Why in the hell should such people now be somehow responsible for the tax bill? Insane. You take all of the risk. **you** take all of the debt. ***you** sacrifice your life for an education, and then the rest of the public turns around and says “oh, now pay for the rest of us.” Yeah, I wonder why people leave NS, and Canada as a rule.
the first chance I get I’m moving out of the greedy HRM or HELIFAX .THE GOVERMENT IS TO CORUPET