88.2 Taxing Food or other Basic Consumer Goods
Whereas, The Federal Government has considered a broad-based multi-stage sales tax on all goods and services, including such basics as food and clothing, and using refundable tax credits as an offset for the tax regressively involved; and,
Whereas, Placing a tax on basic items will inevitably increase their costs and place an undue burden on the poor because few of these items can be either substituted or postponed; and,
Whereas, Tax credits can help alleviate the problem of higher costs but their timing cannot be made to coincide with the increase in costs and, because of inadequate income information, they cannot be made to reach all those adversely affected; and,
Whereas, Placing a tax on food and other basic goods will cause an immediate increase in the cost of living with little likelihood that the elimination of the manufacturing tax will result in any later decline in consumer prices; therefore be it,
RESOLVED, That The National Council of Women of Canada urge the Government of Canada:
- To continue to exempt food from any sales tax system;
- To extend the food exemption to cover non-food household items essential to good hygiene such as toilet paper, detergents, disinfectants, etc.;
- To develop basic price levels for items for clothing for children so that such items sold for children below these levels would be tax exempt.