We live in a country with Scandinavian tastes and a North American tax code.

And in case you haven’t noticed, the cost of everything is rising, our social program obligations are growing, the population is aging, our infrastructure is crumbling and public finances are wheezing.

We feel taxed out, but what we pay now will not pay for all of this if we continue to demand all of this. We would need—yes, we would—new taxes at all levels of government. We won’t like it or easily concede it—I definitely don’t and won’t. But we show no signs that our appetite to borrow from tomorrow to finance today will be ending today, tomorrow or any time soon.

Federally, the realities of demographic, economic and policy forces point to a widening gap between revenue and expenditure. Provincially, health care and education demands are ballooning. Municipally, the least empowered element in the fiscal federation is carrying out responsibilities vastly disproportionate to its revenue tools.

The post-pandemic era is marked by record deficits, aging populations, climate adaptation needs, and the end of near-free borrowing costs. We are on a buy-now, pay-later program of public finances for most anything new. The question seems no longer whether taxes will rise, but how, when and for whom.

The gap between public expectations of services and the political reluctance to inconvenience us with a discussion on how to pay for them is bringing us toward a big, hard wall. Sure, we can blurt the necessity to “axe the tax,” but the more........

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