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Finance Minister Bill Morneau says this is not fair, and he wants to tax business owners in much the same way as employees. The proposed changes would bring the government an additional $250 million a year, but it’s not about that, we’re told, it’s all about fairness.

Doctors and other business owners are taking advantage of the system, Morneau suggests. Canada’s small business taxes are low so that companies can grow and hire more people, not so owners can make more money. This is a fine illustration of a point that government consistently fails to get.

People run a business to make money, not to expand the economy. They hire when they need people, not because taxes are low. As the former head of a significant business, Morneau surely understands that.

If the minister wants to make the tax system fair, he has picked an odd place to start. In a fair tax system, everyone would pay the same percentage of income as taxes. The person earning $100,000 would pay twice as much as the one earning $50,000. It’s not that simple in Canada. Our tax system increases the percentage you pay as your income goes up.

Morneau is fond of saying that high earners should pay their “fair share” of taxes, but what share would that be? The top 10 per cent earn 35 per cent of Canada’s total income but pay 54 per cent of income taxes. Is that fair?

Morneau lauds his government’s Canada Child Benefit, and yet this benefit, which pays up to $6,400 a child, is tax free. Compare that to the Old Age Security for seniors, which is fully taxable. Fair?