Dan Knight:

Welcome to January 2nd, 2024, folks. As you shake off the festive spirit and step into the new year, brace yourselves. We’re dissecting the 2024 New Year’s Tax Changes report by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and it’s a doozy. The federal government, in its relentless quest for revenue, has already set the stage to make you a little poorer this year. As the New Year’s confetti is swept away and resolutions begin to take shape, Canadians are facing a stark, harsh reality. Your hard-earned dollars are about to be stretched even thinner, victim to a barrage of tax increases that are as inevitable as they are infuriating. […]

The table is set, and the numbers are stark. Whether you’re earning $30,000 or $200,000, the increases are universal, relentless, and indifferent to your personal economic circumstances. The Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance taxes alone are set to take a bigger bite out of your paycheck. The touted second CPP tax, or “CPP2,” isn’t just an additional burden; it’s an emblem of a government that sees no problem in reaching deeper into the pockets of its citizens.

And let’s talk about that carbon tax. It’s not just rising; it’s skyrocketing from $65 per tonne to $80 per tonne. This isn’t just an abstract figure. It translates to more than 17 cents per litre of gas, a direct hit to anyone who drives a car, heats their home, or, frankly, buys anything transported by truck, train, or plane. Trudeau’s government has the audacity to claim that families will somehow be “better off” with this carbon tax and its so-called rebate scheme. But let’s call it what it is: a blatant falsehood.

Update: Cabinet’s billion-dollar carbon tax cut on home heating oil followed months of warnings from in-house pollsters, records show. Homeowners opposed the tax as costly and divisive in Atlantic Canada where 24 Liberal MPs are up for re-election: “Almost all believed the carbon pricing system was too complicated and did not expect this initiative would be effective in reducing emissions.”