Turner calls on Flaherty to split income now

Independent MP Garth Turner
Media Release

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A coalition of family advocates, politicians, academics and families themselves are urging Ottawa to let spouses share income – a move they say will usher in a long-awaited Canadian middle-class tax revolution. A major conference in Ottawa next month will drive this point home to Parliament Hill.

MP Garth Turner is one of the moving forces behind this income-splitting conference, to take place on Tuesday, January 30th from 10 am to noon on Parliament Hill in Room 200, West Block. A similar conference Turner hosted last October on pension-splitting for seniors was the precursor to government approval of that measure on October 31st.

“Income-splitting will recognize the social contribution that the family unit provides our society,” Turner says, “and help repair the fiscal imbalance that really matters – between men and women.”

Income-splitting would increase household cash flow encouraging many households to consider having children by lessening the financial burden. It would even out the tax disparities between single and dual-income families and give much needed monetary value to the work of unpaid caregivers, empowering them at the same time to secure their own financial futures by allowing RRSP contributions.

“It’s about time that the government recognizes the value that unpaid caregivers are to their communities,” says Landriault of the Care for the Child Coalition. “We are only demanding the respect and legal recognition that most workers in Canada take for granted.”

An online petition for income-splitting has garnered hundreds of signatures in its first few days, and can be viewed at http://www.petitiononline.com/share/petition.html.

Garth Turner, who advocated income-splitting in a pre-budget report to Flaherty last Spring, and has been advancing this for more than 13 years, will be introducing a motion in the House when it next sits to call for immediate action to install income-splitting measures to allow for tax fairness. He also recently commissioned an independent report on income-splitting which showed it is affordable for the federal government. The most recent report update from the Library of Parliament and a backgrounder is attached for your further information.

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