Tories pledge to amend impending Liberal ways and means motion

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OTTAWA — The Liberals are playing their song.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the first question period of the spring session, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the Mark Carney Liberals’ proposed tax cuts sound a little too familiar.

“We, the Conservatives, have been leading a crusade for lower taxes,” Poilievre said.

“When we proposed this, the Liberals said we were crazy — and now all of the sudden they are, at least in part, plagiarizing our policy proposals and adopting modified and watered-down versions of them.”

Announced Tuesday after the throne speech, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne tabled notice of an impending ways and means motion that’ll introduce a slate of tax cuts, including their promised middle-class tax cut, eliminating the GST for first-time homebuyers for homes up to $1 million and striking the consumer carbon tax from Canadian law — eliminating the key policy point of the Justin Trudeau Liberals.

The new GST cut will save new homebuyers up to $50,000.

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The Mark Carney Liberals borrowed heavily from the Conservative platform during this year’s federal election, adopting policy proposals dismissed and often derided by the Trudeau Liberals.

“Their motion will partly eliminate the carbon tax, the GST of homes and give a very modest, very tiny income tax cut,” Poilievre said, pointing out the Liberal tax cut could maybe buy Canadians a weekly cup of coffee

The Liberals say their tax cut would save families up to $840 a year — nearly a third of what Canadian renters pay monthly on average.

“Conservatives came here to fight for lower taxes and more purchasing power,” Poilievre said, adding they plan to amend the motion to eliminate the entire carbon tax, increase the breadth of the GST rebate on homes and make the income tax cut bigger in scope.

“We’re also going to push for cuts in bureaucracy, consultants, corporate welfare and foreign aid, so that we can match the lost revenue with more spending in order to avoid adding to the deficit.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume