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As the federal election approaches, it’s imperative that facts inform the public discourse. Instead, there’s unfortunately been an increase in political rhetoric from the federal government along with some flawed reporting on taxes.

On June 5, Joël Lightbound, the Parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance, rose in the House of Commons in response to a question about taxation in Canada and said, “I find it somewhat troubling that the member for Carleton still refers to a Fraser Institute study that’s been debunked by just about anyone who can read and count who’s taken five minutes to look at it.”

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The study in question calculated the overall personal income tax changes made by the Liberals in 2016, shortly after they were elected. As promised during the 2015 campaign, the government lowered the personal income tax rate for middle-income individuals — those with earnings between $45,916 and $91,831 in 2016 — from 22 per cent to 20.5 per cent. As the government has rightly argued, this change resulted in lower personal income taxes for Canadians with income in this tax bracket.