Is the wet summer of 2017 becoming notable as the summer of discontent for reasons other than the weather? That is the question constituents are asking me as the reality of bad tax policy to pay for bad federal spending sinks in. The global jet-setting lifestyle practised by Trudeau, apart from being bad for the environment, would not be so bad except for the billions of taxpayers’ dollar he gives away on his many foreign trips. The bills are piling up, and the government can only charge so much bad spending before the bills must get paid.
If Trudeau spent more time in Canada, maybe he would know there is a serious doctor shortage. Of the many concerns that constituents contact me about, the lack of local doctors, and the fear of losing their family doctor is always part of the conversation.
This shortage is only going to get worse with the announcement by Trudeau’s Toronto Bay Street based Finance Minister that doctors are the latest liberal tax target. Unlike the last tax target, small family owned campgrounds, who lose their livelihoods if they move, doctors have job mobility. They can choose to practice their skills where the local government has decided that class envy between occupations is bad public policy.
The doctor shortage is most acute in smaller communities. The first people who will suffer for this change in tax policy to pay for bad spending will be local taxpayers who already must pay “cash incentives” to attract doctors. The next group to suffer will be Canadians without a doctor. That number will rise as more older doctors retire rather than face rising expenses and shrinking income.
A recent international study on healthcare ranks Canada almost at the bottom when it comes to health outcomes and at the bottom only slightly ahead of the U.S. when it comes to access to healthcare. That means that among the 11 systems studied, every other country studied gives better access to health-care services except the United States.
The worst part of the tax change that targets doctors is that only a few years ago the liberal party of Toronto changed provincial tax laws so it could pay doctors less. These same Liberals, now in Ottawa, are calling that tax law change a tax loophole. Unfortunately in Ontario, it is average Canadians whose health will suffer as Trudeau looks for more ways to pay for his bad spending.