A Commentary by Doug Draper
How sad it is that Ontario’s New Democrats – a party that is supposed to be a voice for the little people – holds the balance of power in this province, yet is less willing to ask for a progressive tax increase from Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government than well-off doctors.
Dr. Michael Rachlis - Ontario;'s Doctors for Fair Taxation.
In a delaration she made in the provincial legislature this past April 3, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked the McGuinty government to consider increasing income taxes to people in the province making more than $500,000 annually to help pay for children’s day care and other services.
For someone who is supposed to be the leader of a party famous for representing ordinary, working class people. Horwath sure has set the bar on who should pay a little bit more in taxes a little bit high, hasn’t she? Maybe she has spent a little bit too much time in the gilded cage called Queen’s Park.
In the meantime, Doctors for Fair Taxation, an organization representing medical physicians in the province, issued a media release, asking the Liberal government to fight the province’s $16-billion deficit and help collect revenue for necessary public services at the same time by hiking income taxes on individuals making more than $100,000 a year.
“I think our position is just ultra reasonable,” Dr. Michael Rachlis, a medical physician and spokesperson for Doctors for Fair Taxation told Niagara At Large this April 4. Rachlis added that all his organization is asking for is that a doctor or anyone else with a taxable income around $170,000 per year to pay an extra roughly $1,400 in taxes to help cover the cost of essential services in the province.
“I think we can do that because it is a moral question,” said Rachlis, “because the inequality in Canada is getting wider” when it comes to people at the higher and lower ends of the income spectrum.
So that leaves us with doctors, who are higher income earners, willing to pay more in income taxes, an NDP that is now only willing to have people in the top one per cent (compared to the top 10 per cent or so earners the doctors want to rope in), and the Liberals and Conservatives, who don’t want to raise income taxes at all.
The ladder two parties – the Liberals and Conservatives – would apparently rather cut services or raise ‘user fees’ for them than raise taxes on income which are taxes based, more fairly, on an individual’s ability to pay.
What a sad set of circumstances that leaves us in. No wonder so many people say there is not all that much different to choose from at election time.
Niagara At Large is posting below a statement from Doctors for Fair Taxation. You can also find out more about this organization by visiting its website at http://doctorsforfairtaxation.ca/ .
A Statement from Doctors for Fair Taxation
Over the last decade, many physicians have become concerned about the alarming growth of income inequality in Canada. The University of Toronto Centre for Urban and Community Studies has described three cities within the City of Toronto. Downtown and midtown neighbourhoods are becoming richer. The outer suburbs are getting poorer and the inner suburbs are barely holding their own.
Most doctors live in the higher-income neighbourhoods. Life is good for us and our neighbours. But many of our patients live in neighbourhoods that are struggling.
Almost all the economic gains of the past three decades have gone to Canada’s top 1 per cent but our taxes haven’t gone up accordingly. Controlled for inflation, during the last 30 years, the highest earning fifth of Canadians increased their pay by 40 per cent while the earnings of the lowest fifth fell by 11 per cent. As in the U.S., where Warren Buffet pays a lower rate of tax than his secretary, in Canada the poorest tenth of Canadians pay a higher rate of tax than the richest tenth.
To make things worse, the federal and provincial governments have slashed taxes in the past 15 years, especially for corporations and high earners. In the 1960s, the highest marginal income tax rate was 80 per cent and in the early 1990s it was 58 per cent. But now the highest marginal rate is 46 per cent, only for income over $132,000. We have a flat tax for the rich. Doctors pay a top rate of 46 per cent, but so do billionaires.
As physicians, we see the impact of this growing inequality on our patients and communities. Diabetes rates are skyrocketing in poor neighbourhoods. And economic inequality is bad for everyone. For example, less equal societies have much higher rates of violence.
After several years of discussion, five of us launched Doctors for Fair Taxation one week ago. We have been overwhelmed with public and media interest. Almost 200 doctors have signed our petition, which calls for higher taxes on the highest 10 per cent of income earners. A group of lawyers has created Lawyers for Fair Taxation and a group of religious leaders is organizing Clergy for Fair Taxation.
All of us are very concerned about the Ontario budget’s impact on the province’s most vulnerable residents. The budget will axe programs and services that are crucial to health and social development. Ontario social assistance allowances have been frozen and now buy almost 60 per cent less than in 1995. Ontario’s child tax credit, the keystone of Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy, will rise slowly, if at all. But there is no discussion of progressive taxation.
It is immoral to ask the poor, the unemployed and low-income workers to balance the province’s books and not require anything significant of Ontario’s highest earning citizens.
Tim Hudak and the Conservatives oppose the budget, placing them to the right of Attila the Hun. The government is putting a lot of pressure on Andrea Horwath and the NDP to support the budget. We want Horwath to put the pressure back on the premier.
We want the NDP to demand that the McGuinty government increase taxes on the top 10 per cent of Ontarians, who have more than $100,000 of taxable income (approximately $110,000 to $150,000 overall income). We would like the provincial government to institute four new tax brackets at taxable incomes of $100,000, $170,000, $640,000 and $1,850,000 corresponding to the top 10 per cent, 1 per cent, one-tenth of 1 per cent, and one-hundredth of 1 per cent of taxpayers. Our plan would raise approximately $1.7 billion in new revenue for the Ontario government while leaving tax rates unchanged for 90 per cent of taxpayers.
We are asking the New Democratic Party to vote against this budget unless the government agrees to increase taxes on high-income-earning Ontarians.
Horwath should also demand that McGuinty mandate the finance committee to review other potential revenue instruments and make recommendations in time for next year’s budget. McGuinty should put away his knives and implement fair taxation. This is crucial to protect the health of all our patients and communities. Ms. Horwath, please ask the government to increase taxes on high-income earners like us. Ontario is worth it.
“Over the last decade, many physicians have become concerned about the alarming growth of income inequality in Canada. The University of Toronto Centre for Urban and Community Studies has described three cities within the City of Toronto. Downtown and midtown neighbourhoods are becoming richer. The outer suburbs are getting poorer and the inner suburbs are barely holding their own.
Most doctors live in the higher-income neighbourhoods. Life is good for us and our neighbours. But many of our patients live in neighbourhoods that are struggling.
Almost all the economic gains of the past three decades have gone to Canada’s top 1 per cent but our taxes haven’t gone up accordingly. Controlled for inflation, during the last 30 years, the highest earning fifth of Canadians increased their pay by 40 per cent while the earnings of the lowest fifth fell by 11 per cent. As in the U.S., where Warren Buffet pays a lower rate of tax than his secretary, in Canada the poorest tenth of Canadians pay a higher rate of tax than the richest tenth.
To make things worse, the federal and provincial governments have slashed taxes in the past 15 years, especially for corporations and high earners. In the 1960s, the highest marginal income tax rate was 80 per cent and in the early 1990s it was 58 per cent. But now the highest marginal rate is 46 per cent, only for income over $132,000. We have a flat tax for the rich. Doctors pay a top rate of 46 per cent, but so do billionaires.
As physicians, we see the impact of this growing inequality on our patients and communities. Diabetes rates are skyrocketing in poor neighbourhoods. And economic inequality is bad for everyone. For example, less equal societies have much higher rates of violence.
After several years of discussion, five of us launched Doctors for Fair Taxation one week ago. We have been overwhelmed with public and media interest. Almost 200 doctors have signed our petition, which calls for higher taxes on the highest 10 per cent of income earners. A group of lawyers has created Lawyers for Fair Taxation and a group of religious leaders is organizing Clergy for Fair Taxation.
All of us are very concerned about the Ontario budget’s impact on the province’s most vulnerable residents. The budget will axe programs and services that are crucial to health and social development. Ontario social assistance allowances have been frozen and now buy almost 60 per cent less than in 1995. Ontario’s child tax credit, the keystone of Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy, will rise slowly, if at all. But there is no discussion of progressive taxation.
It is immoral to ask the poor, the unemployed and low-income workers to balance the province’s books and not require anything significant of Ontario’s highest earning citizens.
Tim Hudak and the Conservatives oppose the budget, placing them to the right of Attila the Hun. The government is putting a lot of pressure on Andrea Horwath and the NDP to support the budget. We want Horwath to put the pressure back on the premier.
We want the NDP to demand that the McGuinty government increase taxes on the top 10 per cent of Ontarians, who have more than $100,000 of taxable income (approximately $110,000 to $150,000 overall income). We would like the provincial government to institute four new tax brackets at taxable incomes of $100,000, $170,000, $640,000 and $1,850,000 corresponding to the top 10 per cent, 1 per cent, one-tenth of 1 per cent, and one-hundredth of 1 per cent of taxpayers. Our plan would raise approximately $1.7 billion in new revenue for the Ontario government while leaving tax rates unchanged for 90 per cent of taxpayers.
We are asking the New Democratic Party to vote against this budget unless the government agrees to increase taxes on high-income-earning Ontarians.
Horwath should also demand that McGuinty mandate the finance committee to review other potential revenue instruments and make recommendations in time for next year’s budget. McGuinty should put away his knives and implement fair taxation. This is crucial to protect the health of all our patients and communities. Ms. Horwath, please ask the government to increase taxes on high-income earners like us. Ontario is worth it.
Dr. Gary Bloch, Dr. Rosana Pellizzari, Dr. Tanya Zakrison, Dr. Philip Berger, Dr. Michael Rachlis, for Doctors for Fair Taxation.
Niagara At Large is also including the following link for a CBC story on this issue – http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/04/03/toronto-ontario-mcguinty-election-tories.html .
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post in the comment boxes below. Please remember that we only post comments from individuals who share with our readers their real first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
The N.D.P is taking a step in the right direction, as is this group of doctors. Kudos to Doctors For Fair Taxation, and kudos to the N.D.P.
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I noted with more than a little interest that only 200 doctors in Ontario have signed onto Doctors for Fair Taxation, which suggests this group–as well intentioned and as morally correct as they are–only represent a relatively small number of doctors. Its too bad more doctors don’t sign on.
As for Andrea Horwath, she has remembered the bruising her predecessor, Howard Hampton, took both from within and outside the party for suggesting the government start taxing those making $100,000 at a higher rate. Hampton never raised the idea again. While Horwath was only a Hamilton city councillor at the time, the ones who were in caucus at the time no doubt want to forget that pledge as well.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of reaction Dr. Rachlis, an architect of Bob Rae’s social contract, and his group get from their call. If recent history is any indication, it ain’t gonna be pretty.
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There’s no question that Michael Rachliss and Doctors for Fair Taxation has got it right. Their suggestion for progressive taxation should be taken seriously. Now what a shame that they didn’t think of it before the provincial election, though, so that there could have been a real debate about taxation. However, a generation of neoliberal economics isn’t going to fade away overnight because a small group of doctors has finally got religion. You want to promote your excellent proposition, Dr. Rachliss? Then start with your own powerful organizations. Let us know when the Ontario Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association sign on, will you? Better yet, ask OMA and the OHA to lobby the present McGuinty government to bring in progressive taxation, since those organizations are so chummy with the Ministry of Health. If you’re serious about wanting change, you’d better be prepared to work for it, like the rest of us commoners. Go out and get a few thousand of your peers to agree. Then we’ll talk. Until then, nix the ultimatums to Andrea, okay? Frankly, you haven’t earned that right.
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Andrea Horwath has some strong cards to play if she plays them right, Dalton Mc.Guinty will blink,why not a cap on what people in the management arena can earn, lot’s of them make double what the Premier makes in a year, also the golden handshakes they get when they are fired is scandalous how about a reprieve for the slots, until a review can be made on the viability of this moneymaker $100 million in profits is not chicken feed.and that is during a recession, the worst in 75 years,.also Toronto residents should have a referendum next Municipal Election on wether they want a Casino, Niagara Falls had one, so why not?.
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it is too bad that several groups have to come forward to argue that the Pope should be Catholic, for example, when in fact, progressive taxation is obviously much better than what we had to live with for the past couple of decades. My fear is politicians will not want to tax their wealthy friends, as they might not be able to join their corporate boards after they end their career in politics.
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The top 1/5 of earners increased their income by 40%.
The bottom 1/5 of earners decreased their income by 11%.
That says it all.
As for the few MDs that have agreed to this, good for them.
As for Andrea Horwath pushing for a tax increase on the big guys, if they are such a small percentage, they also represent a small percentage of the voters…. so go for it. Someone, somewhere has to bring this about and break this unfair cycle. This is becoming the paradigm around the world and will be the cause of much animosity and, eventually, civil unrest. How can such a small percentage demand so much? Oh, money = power.
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Before ANY further tax increases are considered, governments at all levels need to clean up their act. How can anyone talk about tax increases when one considers all the fiscal fiascos that all levels of government have been responsible for over the years?
As for taxing the wealthy. They already pay more taxes, in REAL Dollar terms, than 95% of the population. In fact if one were to do the math relating taxes paid in dollars versus services received, one could argue the wealthy are getting the short end of the stick. The ironic thing is that this same 95% demand so much from our government in terms of services that they no longer even cover the costs of these services with the taxes they pay on a per capita basis. Do the math!
The wealthy create wealth through their entrepreneurial efforts and the resources they have available to them. We should be encouraging that, not penalizing that more than we already do!
The reason people are not doing well financially, in case anyone is interested, is that increases in items like food, homes, fuels and taxes have eroded incomes materially over the last 20 years. Just look at the ratio of income to food/house/taxes/fuel costs were 20 years ago.
Address that issue and you will be able to address the financial quality of life challenge that many of us are faced with.
To everyone that supports any form of tax increase to anyone…. your attention is being misdirected from the core issues and challenges this whole country is faced with.
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Congratulations to the Doctors for Fair Taxation. This is a long overdue idea which can make a real difference to people’s lives.
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You are right in my estimation Greg, but it is much easier to tax the wealthy than deal with the systemic problems in governments at every level. This is nothing but class warfare as being waged south of the border, misdirection and bulldust.
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Even though I’m retired and no longer am in the high income bracket and so wont feel a personal pinch, I’m about to join Michael Rachlis’ admirable group. Give it some little time and you’ll see what changes fair-minded doctors can bring about.
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I am glad to hear from somebody here in Niagara that supports this.
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Good on them. I have added to the petition since I saw no one from Niagara had done so. I cannot find the doctor’s list to which Willie Noiles refers.
Where is that?
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John, we are already in class warfare. The wealthiest people are gaining more and more at the expense of the rest of us and a few among them, use games of divide and conquer to make sure that the poorest among us lose more and more. John, I refuse to pay for any more tax cuts for the wealthy or any more bailouts for large companies, particularly when they pay their CEOs millions of dollars to figure these things out. If they can’t get their own company out of the abyss, to me it is time to find another CEO who can and not go to the taxpayers. Incidents like ORNGE, OLG, eHealth and all of this are symptoms of the same thing. How come these people are not being asked to pay a single penny back, yet if somebody on OW or ODSP gets a single penny too much, it is pretty much guaranteed it will be clawed back. Class warfare is already here. It is time that the rest of us get a break too.
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Thank you John. It would appear from the comments that followed mine, that either those people don’t get it or don’t want to get it.
Let me ask this, when is enough enough? I can leave this country, like many with financial means, buy my Platinum International health insurance and with the taxes I would save in a couple of years and live in a mansion somewhere south. Of course taking my resources, taxes payable and purchasing power elsewhere.
Who then will pay for all those services the 95% of our population demand? That 95% who don’t pay enough taxes on a per capita basis to cover the services they demand. It’s already happening. Look at sports, music and other celebrities that foresake their Canadian citizenship for a citizenship that doesn’t penalize prosperity.
Taxes are regressive. Our politicians need to deal with the core issues of this country before they ask for one more red cent! By giving them any option to increase taxes just delays the inevitable. What happens when they find ways to waste that in the same manner that they waste what we currently sacrifice to provide to them? WE as a population as a WHOLE are TAXED to the MAX!
To all of you who support tax increases of any kind; You are being extremely short-sighted. You should be signing petitions to encourage politicians to be more respectful of the tax dollars they receive at all levels of government. Your are being played by politicians that would rather divide our society and conquer and distract us from the core challenges this country faces. The same gutless politicians that are more concerned about their self-preservation than doing what is right!
Just sayin…
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Greg, because I am married to somebody who cannot work and is reliant on ODSP, 85% of my money is taken off every month. I pay more “taxes” or lose more disposable income probably than anybody else on this board, including any billionaires that aren’t on this board. Wealthy people use all kinds of loopholes to keep them from paying their full marginal rates. They end up paying much less as a proportion of their income than those of the middle and working classes. An economist was speaking on television last week and said that the lowest 10% of our population pays more as a proportion of their income than the top 10%. The top 10% certainly has more than enough to feed and house their families twenty to fifty times over, even after taxes, while the lower echelons are struggling to make a decision each month: pay the rent OR feed the kids. I think when you look at it this way, the reality is clear. As well, I should not be “taxed” at the rate I am just because of who I am married to. It should be strictly through CRA and on the amount I actually earn … only. And my husband gets his benefits affected only if HE ever returned to work.
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