Tinkering with the GST credit may sound helpful, but it isn’t the kind of relief most families are looking for

Prime Minister Mark Carney is embracing the politics of economic tinkering, offering a rebranded, narrowly targeted GST credit top-up when Canadians need broad, structural relief. While the government says it is responding to the affordability crisis, modest tweaks to the GST credit will not deliver the kind of meaningful, universal relief that cutting income taxes would.

The newly named Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit will provide a one-time top-up payment this spring to those families who currently get the GST credit and will boost payments by 25 per cent for five years, beginning in July.

The government says the benefit will also become available to 500,000 new individuals and families.

According to the government’s backgrounder, up to 12.6 million Canadians could benefit from the program.

But those headline numbers hide a major flaw.

The Carney government’s targeted GST credit top-up is a band-aid solution to Canada’s affordability crisis.

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