Canada Comes Out Swinging Against Bank Tax

Canada launched a full-court press against the idea of a global bank tax Tuesday, as the prime minister and four senior cabinet members came out strongly against a proposal that’s gathering global steam

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a proposed international bank tax would unfairly penalize well-regulated Canadian financial institutions that survived the global economic meltdown.

“You can’t tax an economy into prosperity; likewise you can’t tax a financial sector into stability,” Harper said Tuesday.

The prime minister told a G8 and G20 youth forum on Parliament Hill that Canada’s banks didn’t have to be bailed out during the global financial crisis and shouldn’t be saddled with the proposed levy.

“They were not able to exploit some of the opportunities that got so many of these other Western banks into trouble. That’s why we think it would obviously be unfair,” Harper said Monday.

Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist Don Drummond told CBC News he expects the bank tax proposal will fail because it isn’t logical.

(more…)

PHP Freelancer