Raise basic personal amount
Petitioners ask the Government of Canada to raise the Basic Personal Amount to $28,000, remove GST/HST on home heating, electricity and food, and suspend discretionary foreign aid in deficit years to cut debt.
Why we would sign this petition
- It would leave more take‑home pay for low‑income households by exempting income up to a poverty‑line BPA, improving ability to afford food, rent and heat.
- Removing GST/HST on essentials would lower the cost of basic goods and energy, reducing the regressive burden of consumption taxes.
- Redirecting discretionary foreign aid in deficit years toward debt reduction could free funds to lower interest costs and long‑term fiscal strain.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- Raising the BPA to $28,000 would significantly reduce federal revenue and could worsen deficits unless offset by spending cuts or other revenue sources.
- Permanently exempting heating, electricity and all food from GST/HST would shrink the tax base and could reduce funding for public services.
- Halting discretionary foreign aid in deficit years may harm international relationships and humanitarian objectives, and the projected savings could be intermittent or politically contested.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled It is the duty of the government to always uphold the best interests of its citizens and residents. Yet today, citizens are taxed before they can afford to survive. The 2026 Basic Personal Amount is only $16,452—nearly $12,000 below the poverty line. Taking money from paycheques before people can afford food or rent is fundamentally unjust; This systemic unfairness multiplies daily. Canadians are taxed upon earning their livelihoods, then penalized again via GST and carbon taxes when simply buying groceries or heating their homes during winter. This relentless taxation cycle disproportionately devastates low-income families, who must spend absolutely every dollar on baseline survival; and Meanwhile, 11 cents of every tax dollar simply services the interest on our staggering $1.27 trillion National Debt. That is $55.6 billion wasted annually. Simultaneously, the government runs an annual deficit exceeding $70 billion. On any commercial flight, the universal safety instruction is explicit: you must secure your own oxygen mask before attempting to assist others. A nation must operate by this exact same undeniable logic. Sending billions overseas in discretionary foreign aid while nearly 7 million Canadians face severe food insecurity at home is unacceptable. We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to: 1. Raise the Basic Personal Amount to the $28,000 poverty line, guaranteeing no income tax is collected until survival needs are met; 2. Permanently remove GST and HST from home heating, electricity, and all food; and 3. Halt all discretionary foreign aid during deficit years, legally redirecting those exact funds to aggressively reduce Canadian debt.
Government response
No government response is available yet.