A left-leaning think tank is calling on B.C. to raise taxes, saying if the province collected the same amount of taxes it did in 2000, it would wipe out the deficit and have more money for services.

The call comes from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which says the boast by the Liberal government that B.C. has the lowest taxes in Canada is starving key services of cash.

It says despite the lower taxes, B.C.'s economic performance, job creation and business investment levels are all around the middle of the pack compared to other provinces, while the tax burden has shifted from corporations to families, and from upper-income families to middle and modest-income ones.

The centre says if B.C. collected the same amount of taxes as the average for other Canadian provinces it would have an extra $2.4 billion, and if collected what it did in 2000, it would have $3.5 billion more.

The report also says since 2000 the government has cut taxes for the richest one per cent of B.C. households by an average of $41,000 per year.