Recommendations for reforming the tax system to reduce poverty and inequality and increase productivity and prosperity for canadians

The Network believes that the greatest challenge posed to Canada's prosperity and productivity is rising levels of poverty, inequality and disadvantage amongst both specific populations and specific geographic communities. The aggregate impact of poverty, and cycles of decline in rural, northern, aboriginal and urban community settings, has increased costs to the taxpayer of social, health and other programs that address the symptoms of disadvantage and social exclusion. There are also indirect costs in terms of lost revenue from the tax base from employment, sales and production through those communities and people not employed and included in the economy. Finally, there is an aggregate cost of underdevelopment or decline in communities from the long term loss of potential economic activity and investment in those regions, and the multiplier that this represents in the overall productivity of the population and regions of Canada.