Canada's Housing Bubble

Apr 19, 2010 Cormac Mac Sweeney 660news.com

It looks like more and more of our hard-earned cash is being handed to the government.

That's according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.

It finds that since 1961, average Canadian families have seen their taxes rise much more than the cost of food, clothing, and even housing.

"The government takes entirely too much of our income, and then spends way too much. That needs to be a trend we start reversing and get back to ensuring that families spend most of their money on the necessities of life rather than their government," Scott Hennig with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation tells 660News.

This trend is getting so significant that families are now spending 41% of their annual incomes on taxes.

That equals nearly $29,000 a year for each household.

"Taxes have become the most significant item that Canadian consumers now face in their budgets," says the study's co-author Niels Veldhuis.

In the past five decades, taxes have risen 1,624%, which is about 500% more than the rise in the cost of housing and 1,000% more than food and clothing.

We're being warned this discrepancy could get worse. As we come out of recession, Hennig says the government is taking on more debt and we can expect to pay out more in taxes to get out of the red.

See also: Taxes for average Canadian family have increased at faster rate than costs of food, clothing and housing