Canada won't raise taxes to help pay for COVID-19 aid programs: Finance Minister

Canada’s Finance Minister Bill Morneau on June 18 reportedly said that the government will not be hiking taxes this time to help cover for COVID-19 aid programs. So far, the Liberal government has revealed measures worth more than C$160 billion in direct spending. However, Morneau, while speaking to an international media outlet, said that the officials will not raise taxes. 

The Finance Minister also reportedly explained that at a time when the country is seeing the economy that has gone down so precipitously, the last thing the government would want to do is to raise taxes. As per reports, while Morneau is due to unveil a fiscal and economic snapshot to show the government spending amid COVID-19 outbreak, he also said that the government needs to think about how they can get the economy back up and running so that they can actually cut taxes instead. 

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Amid the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak, the analyst reportedly also predicted that the budget deficit for the 2020/21 fiscal year is set to exceed C$250 billion, smashing the previous records. With the Canadian economy struggling and millions of Canadians losing their jobs, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month also announced at the emergency wage subsidy to help encourage more employers to keep staff on payroll or to help businesses to re-hire employees who are already laid off. 

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Job losses amid COVID-19

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce reportedly called the job losses and the increase in unemployment rate ‘staggering’. The camber further also added that the key to reopening the economy will be ‘re-skilling’ businesses and employees. As per reports, the chamber in a statement said that the key question is how quickly businesses can or will re-hire once the economy reopens even when the social distancing requirements remain in place. 

Currently, Canada has more than 101,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has claimed nearly 8,361 lives in the country. In a bid to contain the virus, Canada also developed low-cost serological test kits for COVID-19 testing using algae. According to reports, the kits will be available in the market in a couple of months from now as algae are cheap to grow and can easily be engineered to produce the viral proteins.

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