OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian taxpayer watchdog group blasted the Liberal federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for implementing no less than five tax hikes in 2023.
As noted by the Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Franco Terrazzano, Canadians will have a “hangover in the new year” from Trudeau’s new tax hikes.
“Canadians can’t afford gas or groceries and the government is making things worse by hiking taxes,” Terrazzano said.
In 2023, workers who make more than $66,000 a year will see their Canada Pension Plan contributions go up by $255.
Workers who make more than $61,500 will have to pay an extra $50 in Employment Insurance tax.
Employers of the workers will also have to pay more as well into the respective programs.
Also increasing for 2023 will be Trudeau’s much-panned carbon tax. Starting in April, this tax will go up to 14 cents per litre of fuel.
It is estimated that the carbon tax increase will cost the average household between $402 and $847 in 2023, even after government rebates.
However, a second carbon tax is coming in July in the form of new “clean fuel” regulations that mandate more ethanol in gasoline. The new fuel standards will see the price of gasoline go up by 13 cents per litre by 2030.
LifeSiteNews reported last year that this second carbon tax will cost the average Canadian worker an extra $1,277 annually.
The “clean fuel” regulations come straight from Trudeau as part of his constantly growing “climate change” agenda, which many Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) critics have said is contributing to the cost-of-living crisis in the nation.
The fuel regulations, along with the first carbon tax, were recently blasted by former Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who now is the head of Canadians for Affordable Energy.
He ripped the “insanity” of Trudeau’s costly “climate change” agenda in a recent interview.
“It is the stuff of magic and make believe,” he lampooned.
Yet another new tax coming in 2023 will affect alcohol. Tax rates for alcohol will go up 6.3 percent starting in April. It should be noted that in Canada, says the CTF, “taxes already account for about half of the price of beer, 65 percent of the price of wine and more than three quarters of the price of spirits.”
Terrazzano blasted Trudeau for raising taxes on Canadians during a time of inflation while “other countries are cutting taxes.”
“But Ottawa is sticking Canadians with higher bills,” Terrazzano said.
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to stop wasting so much money and cut taxes.”
While the Trudeau government increases taxes, some provincial governments such as Alberta have lowered taxes.
Starting this year, the Alberta government suspended in its entirety a provincial fuel tax.
The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – which are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.