Despite the announcement yesterday (October 16) by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that his government plans to roll back the Small Business Tax Rate to nine percent by 2019, local Conservative MP Blake Richards says the Liberals aren't the champions of the middle class that they promised to be during the 2015 election campaign.

The Banff - Airdrie MP points to a report from the Fraser Institute indicating that middle class families would pay an additional $840 in federal income tax this year.  The study done in September says that income taxes have been raised on 81 percent of those families.

Richards says the higher income tax rates are just the tip of the iceberg for the middle class.

"We're talking about an income tax and family benefits situation, so we're not factoring in things like the carbon tax that, once it's fully implemented, the estimates I've seen say will cost upwards of $2,500 a year for the typical family.  It sort of just lays to waste any suggestion that might be made by Justin Trudeau that he's supporting the middle class when in fact he's doing the exact opposite."

Yesterday, Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau promised to lower the Small Business Tax Rate but promised little else to adjust the controversial package of other tax changes that have caused much consternation among small business owners, farmers and doctors.  The government said it would move ahead with the tax changes, saying they would revise some of the proposed changes but not which ones.  They said those changes would be released in the days to come.

Aside from small business owners, Richards says other middle class families are suffering unduly under the Liberals citing the fact they're charging GST and HST on current provincial carbon taxes, calling it a tax on a tax. 

He says in December 2016, the Independent Parliamentary Budget Officer calculated that the new Liberal Child Care Benefit will end up costing Canadians an extra $22.3 billion over ten years,  He also points out the Liberals cancelled the public transit credit, the children's fitness credits and education and text book credits, tax credits the previous Conservative government introduced.      

Richards says, "Every one of these examples is an attempt to try to pay for their reckless spending.  Frankly I don't think Canadians support the spending they're doing and they shouldn't have to pay for it."

Richards says a survey done in his riding agrees with the Fraser Institute's report with a large majority of constituents saying they felt their families are worse off because of the tax changes the Trudeau government has made.

"These measures are felt every day in our communities and middle class Canadians are suffering because of Trudeau's policies."