Canadian Finance Minister Will Not Follow 'Reckless' US Tax Lead

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

11 September 2001

Speaking at the weekend Canadian Finance Minister, Paul Martin, said that Canada would be reckless to follow the lead of the US and implement steep tax cuts, despite pressure from the opposition and the private sector to do so.

Mr Martin echoed the sentiments of the country's Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, who spoke to the Globe and Mail on Friday regarding the tax cuts already implemented, and suggested that Canadians will receive greater tax cuts in the first stage of his long-term economic plan than US citizens will under Mr Bush's plan.

'Ours was front-end loaded, his was back-end loaded,' he explained. 'So we have done much more in terms of tax cuts and in terms of stimulus to the economy than George Bush has done. But we've also done it in a prudent way,'

On Friday, Prime Minister Chrétien firmly rejected calls to go beyond the five year economic plan. However, Mr Martin was not as adamant in his rejection of the possibility of further tax cuts, although he warned that there were no plans for the near future. 'We're not firmly wedded to anything,' he said, in contradiction to M. Chrétien's somewhat rigid stance. 'If circumstances change which require changes in policy, then that's something we're going to look at.'

Recommended