VICTORIA, B.C.: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today praised Finance Minister Michael de Jong’s 2017-18 BC budget and his announcement that the BC government will cut the Medical Services Premium (MSP) tax in half as the first step to eliminating it completely.

The CTF has fought the MSP tax for years, arguing that it was unfair, expensive to collect, and an unnecessary burden on BC taxpayers and small businesses. De Jong’s announcement today means a family with two kids making $45,000 to $120,000 per year will save $900 in taxes.

“For a middle class family, $75 a month is going to be a big help,” said Jordan Bateman, CTF BC Director. “This is the signature tax cut of Christy Clark’s six years as premier – in fact, it’s the first true, broad-based provincial tax cut we’ve seen since 2007.”

Two other tax cuts will help BC employers:

• The small business tax rate will be reduced from 2.5 to 2%.
• By 2019, businesses will no longer pay Provincial Sales Tax on BC Hydro bills. In the meantime, the PST on electricity will be cut in half on Oct. 1, 2017.

“These business tax cuts, coupled with the MSP tax cut, should spark more hiring in BC,” said Bateman. “It’s important that BC’s job creators be given the opportunity to succeed.”

The one rain cloud on the horizon is the continuing growth of the BC debt. In 2007, the BC Liberals had whittled the debt down to $33.4 billion. Since then, they’ve doubled it, and it is now projected to reach $77.7 billion on March 31, 2020.

“The BC debt is set to grow by nearly a billion dollars every three months until 2020,” said Bateman. “This continued borrowing and spending needs to be a bigger concern for government.”