by STEFAN CHRISTOFF
In Canada, economic injustice is also mounting, specifically in Québec where the earning gap between the wealthy and the rest is at a 30-year high according to a recent study by Institut de recherche et d’informations socio-economiques. Major street protests in Montreal challenged a highly unpopular healthcare tax introduced in the past budget, a tax which undermines the principles of public healthcare while amounting to a $200-per-year flat tax by 2012 for all citizens. Essentially, someone earning $15,000 a year will pay the same in health tax as someone making $300,000 per year, “a fundamentally unequal and unjust social equation,” according to Québec Solidaire.
In Canada, cutbacks aimed at key public institutions in a time of economic crisis are widespread, while in Ottawa the Conservative government aims to cut corporate tax rates to 15 per cent by 2012. Canada will then have the lowest tax rate for corporations in G7 major economies – reducing annual government revenues by $14 billion as our society is forced to walk a financial tightrope.
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(Thanks to Feroz Mehdi)