As the Conservative government incrementally lowers corporate taxes, the opposition parties line up for a fight over big business’s fair share of the tax burden.

The Conservatives say:

The Conservatives’ economic record is the main plank of their campaign. They say they steered Canada through tough economic times by infusing the economy with the massive $62-billion Economic Action Plan, which funded infrastructure projects across the country. The Tories intend to reduce corporate taxes from 16.5 per cent to 15 per cent by 2012, which they say will create investment and jobs.

The critics say:

Taking credit for Canada’s economic performance is dubious because the economy is the product of many previous governments’ decisions, as well as international factors. The Economic Action Plan may have helped create jobs, but the Tories spent all of the surplus left to them by Paul Martin’s Liberals and Canada’s deficit ballooned to $55.6 billion in 2010. Spending their way out of the recession has also angered small-c conservative voters who favour small government.

The Liberals say:

The Liberals oppose cutting corporate taxes, and say they will use that tax revenue to help balance the budget. They’ve committed to spending nearly $8 billion on social programs over the next two years, while simultaneously reducing the deficit to one per cent of GDP within two years, but have not specified how they would achieve this. Scrapping Conservative subsidies to the oilsands and eliminating the P3 (public-private partnerships) infrastructure fund would help free up a projected $7 billion in the second year.

The critics say:

The Liberals are better at wishful thinking than economic management. Returning corporate taxes to 18 per cent – which is where they sat until Jan. 1, when they were lowered to 16.5 per cent by the Tories – and eliminating next year’s planned cut to 15 per cent would send corporations heading for the hills (of low-tax jurisdictions) at a time when Canadians need jobs to help recover from the recession.

The NDP says:

The NDP wants to lower small business taxes from 11 per cent to nine per cent, and would raise corporate taxes three points to 19.5 per cent, with the guarantee that they will always be lower than corporate taxes in the United States. Jack Layton has pledged to give employers a $4,500 tax credit for each new employee they hire.

The critics say:

Raising the corporate tax rate would scare off much-needed foreign investment, and the pledge to keep rates lower than those in the U.S. is empty because at nearly 40 per cent, corporate tax rates south of the border are among the highest in the world.

The Green party says:

The Greens would reduce income taxes for Canadians and completely eliminate them for those earning less than $20,000 a year. It would recoup some of the lost tax revenue by eliminating subsidies to industries that harm the environment. The party would also make $10 the standard minimum wage across Canada.

The critics say:

Increase the minimum wage all you want, but we’ll all end up poor if industries that pollute are strangled by government neglect.