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So what now? To bring the economy back to life, the usual voices are demanding government borrow and spend to “stimulate.” But there is a simpler and more direct solution: stop taxing so much money out of the economy in the first place—that is to say, “stop doing harm.”

Consider this: the Government of Canada sucks about $340 billion out of the economy every year through over a half dozen kinds of taxes: income taxes, business taxes, payroll taxes, fuel taxes, tariffs, the GST and others.

The government has already announced massive tax deferrals and breaks. Filing and payment deadlines are delayed. Small businesses can now keep some of their employees’ income tax payroll deductions. Conservatives support these steps.

But to stem mass bankruptcies, we must leave more in the hands of the people who earned it.

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Here is how:

First, Conservatives are proposing that the government refund small businesses all the GST that they have submitted to the government in the last six months and consider a holiday on further GST remittances for the next fiscal quarter. That would leave a small business with tens of thousands of extra dollars for rent, property taxes or loan payments to stay alive.

Second, Conservatives are asking the government to give small businesses a holiday on income tax remittances. So instead of taking money off their employees’ paycheques and giving it to the government, small businesses should be allowed to keep some of it to help them survive.