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I don't know what kind of receipts you get for the fitness tax credit, but we ours just had the name of the organization and the activity. Why don't you have the same argument for the child care deduction?

I was just picking an example - I'm not limiting it to this particular credit.

There is no cotradiction if you assume the stated resaons for the census are not the real reasons.

The Conservatives are against the long form census becasue it provides data that may hinder their implementation of policies they want for political reasons. See the fall in crime rates vs. new prisions. The census in gerneral is the biggest impediment from transitioning from a technocratic driven day to day governing to polictical driven governing.

I have yet to hear a convincing reason other than this.

"I was just picking an example - I'm not limiting it to this particular credit."

So you are arguing that all credits/deductions should not require proof? I don't really see where you are going with any of this.

It's only incoherent from a technocratic, evidence based perspective. Politically it works pretty well. Ask people "Do you like being forced to fill out a long form on pain of fine and/or imprisonment?", and they'll mostly answer "no". Ask those same people "Do you like getting a tax break on your kids sports expenses? and they answer "yes". The vast majority of people don't think about it any more than that. Similarly, they can run attack add like "The Liberals want to track your movements, and they hate children".

"So you are arguing that all credits/deductions should not require proof?"

Nope. See the conclusion:

"A government truly concerned about the privacy of citizens would not fund youth activities in such a way that requires sending personal information to the CRA."

You don't have to fund these activities through the tax system.

... and a government that was truly concerned about privacy would *not* fund these activities through the tax system.

Typical moves for authoritarian populists.
Get the gunmint off your backs for small thing in exchange for increased control elsewhere. And no general policies. Everything must be seen as a personnal gift from the ruler. Duplessis never said he put in place a gunmint program. His slogan was "Duplessis donne à sa province." ( Duplessis give to his province).
Funding a sports center were you register locally would not be a gift from the Dear Leader,Genius of the Rockies, Light of the Tar Sands.

I disagree with those who think this is unique to the Conservatives (whom I didn't vote for). Can anyone provide evidence of a period when the federal government deliberately chose to collect less information on Canadians?

A government collecting more information is not unique at all, but that is not the issue. The issue is the government claiming to be a privocy advocate, while meanwhile collecting more intrusive data.

Mike, interesting post. I suspect the expansion of all of these boutique tax credits is not unrelated to electronic filing - as you say, people would think twice about letting the government know the details of their children's fitness activities. But with electronic filing, they don't have to - people who aren't self employed just aren't audited that often.

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