COLUMN: On Parliament Hill – Are Canadians overtaxed?

Benjamin Franklin famously observed, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” But there is a question that Canadians should be asking: Are we taxed too much?

When governments tax their citizens too heavily, they discourage the very things that move society forward: creativity, hard work, discovery, and ambition. Prosperous societies are built when ambition and achievement are encouraged—not constrained.

Our government should create an environment that encourages Canadians to dream, create, achieve, and contribute—not penalize their success.

When Canadians are empowered and not burdened with taxation, they can develop their talents, take risk, build stronger businesses and investment and strengthen communities.

After a year and a half of Prime Minister Carney, Canada is facing a stalled economy with declining business investment and higher debt than ever before. A core conservative value is that the government needs to get out of the way and create conditions for Canadians to flourish.

A recent study by the Fraser Institute has highlighted how the tax burden on Canadians has grown. Since 1961, the total tax bill increased for Canadian families by 2,928 percent. Translated, it means that in 2025, a Canadian family earning $121,111 paid $50,721 or 41.9 percent in taxes. If we go back to the Fraser Institute’s marker from 1961, the total tax bill on a family earning $5,000 was $1,675 or 33.5 percent of their income.

Those totals included 10 types of direct and indirect taxes, from payroll taxes to sales taxes to property taxes. If accumulated provincial and federal deficits are factored in, Canadian taxpayers would face a 3,243 percent increased tax burden since 1961.

Taxes have become the largest expense facing the average Canadian family—greater than shelter, food and clothing combined.

It’s no wonder Canadians are feeling overburdened by taxes. Canadians are working harder to provide for their families, yet still too many are living paycheque to paycheque.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Canadians deserve a government that releases Canadians from the handcuffing of high taxes.

A simple way to put more money back into Canadians’ pockets today would be to reduce the tax burden at the gas pump. The current Liberal plan would see a return of the federal fuel tax to gas prices after Labour Day increasing gas prices by 10 cents a litre. Conservatives have called for federal taxes to be removed from gas and diesel until July 1, 2027, recognizing the continued financial pressure on Canadians.

If the federal gas tax returns, not only will it add more financial pressure on families already facing back to school and extra curricular costs, but it will also hurt small businesses. The Conservative proposal would save Canadians up to 25 cents per litre and the average family as much as $1,200 a year. It would lower prices at the pump while making groceries, homebuilding materials, and everything else that is transported, more affordable.

This brings me back to my original point about removing the constraints that keep Canadians from flourishing. Imagine a garden hose connected to a powerful water source. The potential for a strong flow is there but put a kink in the hose and the flow is restricted. The water is still available, but its potential cannot be fully realized.

That is the problem with overtaxing Canadians.

When ever-increasing taxes constrain the flow of dreams, ideas, ingenuity, creativity, investment and ambition, the consequences are felt not only by individual Canadians, but by the entire country. Canadians don’t need more restrictions they need the barriers removed so they can flourish.