WINNIPEG, MB:  The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is slamming the Manitoba government for hiking taxes on Manitobans by bringing back bracket creep.

The Manitoba government will stop indexing income tax brackets and the basic personal amount by inflation.

That’s a sneaky way of hiking taxes known as bracket creep. Because of bracket creep, inflation can automatically bump taxpayers into a higher tax bracket and raise their taxes even though they can’t actually afford to buy more because prices have gone up.

“The government shouldn’t be punishing taxpayers with a tax hike just for getting a cost-of-living pay raise,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “Failing to adjust tax brackets to inflation is a stealth tax hike on Manitobans that will increase their tax bills every single year.”

The bracket creep tax hike will cost taxpayers $82 million this year. The total cost to taxpayers will compound every year because of inflation.

The government started indexing its tax brackets in 2017. 

A Manitoba family making $75,000 per year already pays more in provincial taxes than similar families living in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan or Ontario.

“The government should be cutting taxes to help Manitobans deal with the rising cost of living, not hiking taxes,” said Haubrich. “It’s the worst time for the government to start taking more money out of Manitoban’s pockets through bracket creep.”

Despite collecting more money with higher taxes, the government is increasing the debt by $1 billion compared to last year’s budget. By the end of the year, the debt will be $36.5 billion. The government plans to continue piling debt onto taxpayers until at least 2027.

Interest payments on the debt will cost taxpayers $2.3 billion this year, working out to $1,544 per Manitoban. Debt interest payments will cost taxpayers more than $6.4 million per day.

“Premier Wab Kinew is hiking taxes on Manitobans, but the government is still borrowing more money and racking up debt,” Haubrich said. “Taxpayers can’t afford the government wasting millions of dollars on debt interest payments every year.”