A new study says a majority of Canadians make use of tax-funded services that are worth at least half of their combined household incomes, suggesting they are getting good value for their tax dollars.
The left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study, entitled "Canada's Quiet Bargain: The Benefits of Public Spending" argues that Canadians are benefiting greatly from the taxes they are required to pay, despite any perception that they would be better off with lower taxes.
"For the vast majority of Canada's population, public services are, to put it bluntly, the best deal they are ever going to get," the report states.
"The taxes Canadians pay contribute substantially to their standard of living by providing them with some of the best public services in the world."
According to the study:
- On average, Canadians reap $17,000 worth of benefits from tax-funded public services each year, including pensions, child-care benefits, roads and police services.
- More than two-thirds of Canadians' public service benefits are worth more than half their total household incomes.
- Canadians who make between $80,000 and $90,000 per year still enjoy tax-funded benefits that are worth about half their income.
The researchers also found that the value Canadians get for their tax dollars tends to remain relatively stable with time. That is, while Canadians may make use of different services more or less frequently at various points in their lives, the dollar value of those benefits tends not to waver.
According to the study research, four in five Canadians would be better off if the government had not cut the GST, one of many statistics the authors use to suggest that Canadians are better off with their tax-funded services than without them.
"Tax cuts are always made to sound like they're free money to middle-income Canadians," co-author Hugh Mackenzie writes in the study. "They are anything but -- we're far better off with the public services our taxes fund than we are with tax cuts."
With files from The Canadian Press
