OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing the Conservative Party of Canada’s platform for failing to provide a credible plan to balance the books and save money within the federal budget. 

“The Conservatives don’t have a credible plan to balance the budget and they’re barely paying lip service to reducing the deficit,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director with the CTF. “The government is spending $500 billion this year, but instead of going after the low hanging fruit like reversing MP pay raises, the Conservatives are promising to spend billions the government doesn’t have.”

The Conservative platform promises to balance the budget “within the next decade,” but doesn’t have a credible plan showing how it’s going to meet its budget target. The platform does not include costing analysis.

The Conservative platform does little to specify ways to save money within the government’s budget. For example, all members of Parliament received two pay raises during COVID-19, which ranged from $6,900 for a backbench MP to $13,800 for the prime minister, but the Conservative platform is silent on rolling back those pay hikes. 

When running for party leader, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole promised to “immediately repeal the Trudeau carbon tax; and, reject any future national carbon tax or cap-and-trade scheme.” O’Toole is breaking his promise by including his own carbon tax in the party platform.

Some bright spots in the Conservative platform include strengthening the information commissioner’s ability to enforce transparency, explicitly rejecting a home equity tax, promising to repeal the escalator tax on alcohol and dealing with gun crime by hiring police officers rather than an expensive gun ban and buyback program.