Should Ottawa tax health benefits? Depends how they do it

Canada has too many tax credits that light up the tax code like a Christmas tree. Lots of them should be scrapped and the Liberals, to their credit(!), have said that they’ll give all of them a very careful look and scrap unwarranted ones. One that has been quietly signalled as particularly under review is the credit for employer-provided health benefits. As my colleagues Sean Speer and I wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Post, Ottawa should proceed with its reported plans to tax such employer-provided health and dental insurance – but only if the revenue is used to make private insurance more affordable for everyone who wants to use it and not just some, as is currently the case.