Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As announced in the recent federal budget effective this past June 1st, the Government of Canada will be raising the duty-free exemptions for cross-border shopping. Canadian residents who have been out of the country for 24 hours will be able to bring back $200 worth of goods duty free. This current exemption is only $50. The exemption for trips of 48 hours or more will increase from $400 to $800 worth of product duty free.
For the majority of Canadians who live within a few hours of the U.S. border – which is most of the country – this is a real tangible benefit. It means that a family in Toronto or Montreal can wake up in the morning and decide to make a short drive to New York State for the weekend, load up with back to school supplies and clothes, and save potentially hundreds of dollars in tariffs in addition to the savings to be gained from purported lower American prices. It means that a family in southern BC can drive to Washington State two or three times a month, spend the night and come back each time with a trunk load of groceries all duty free. Over the course of a year and a few trips, a family’s savings on import tariffs alone to the Canadian government could easily add up into the thousands of dollars. That is in addition to all the savings from often paying lower prices across the border.
So while I do not begrudge southern Canadian families their tax savings, I believe that the federal government has overlooked the people living in the Territories and northern part of the provinces who do not have the option of cross-border shopping on a weekly or monthly basis and will realize little or no savings from this new duty-free exemption.
Where is the tax relief for northern Canadians who pay higher prices across the board, GST compounded on those higher prices and untold millions of dollars in fuel tax, which is hidden in the cost of every good that is transported north? Where is the fairness?
I believe this oversight could be corrected quickly and easily with an increase in the northern residents’ tax deduction. This would be a straightforward way to give Northerners a break on their income taxes that matches the savings southern Canadians will now realize on their cross-border shopping, and that would be only fair.
Later today I’ll have questions for the Minister of Finance on how he might engage the federal government on this issue. The federal government, the Prime Minister comes up here, they say they want Arctic sovereignty, they want people to live up here and they say they love the North. Well, why don’t they show it? Give us an increase in our northern tax deduction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
