A new study by the CCPA puts a value on the public services taxes support.
According to Canada’s Quiet Bargain: The Benefits of Public Spending, middle‐income Canadian families enjoy public services worth about $41,000 – or 63% of their income.
Even households earning $80,000‐$90,000 a year enjoy public services benefits equivalent to about half of their income.
The study adds up the value of public services offered by all levels of government, including:
- direct payments to individuals: child tax credit, pension, employment insurance;
- services provided to individuals like education, physician and hospital visits
- services like expenditures on roads and traffic where those who benefit are harder to define
- broadly-based public benefits like environmental protection, national defence, foreign affairs and international development.