Less than a quarter of Canadians (23 percent) believe that the federal government is spending money properly on the most important issues facing the country, according to new survey data from Ipsos. The poll, conducted on behalf of the Montreal Economic Institute, also found that 64 percent of people think the government is ineffective in allocating funds to address important problems, while 13 percent said they don't know or prefer not to answer.

More than half of Canadians (55 percent) said the government is spending too much money, while 27 percent believe it's an acceptable level, according to the survey.

Only nine percent of Canadians said government spending is too low, while another nine percent said they don't know or prefer not to answer.

On the other hand, a majority of respondents (67 percent) believe they pay too much in income tax, while one percent think they don't pay enough.

According to Ipsos, 65 percent of men and 70 percent of women believe that the amount they pay in income tax is too high.

Young Canadians (aged 18 to 34 years) are also more likely to think taxes are too high (72 percent) compared to Canadians aged 55 and older (63 percent).

The survey also found that most people (63 percent) are dissatisfied with accountability and transparency in government spending practices while 31 percent said they are satisfied with it.

The survey measured Canadians' views on carbon pricing, which people are likely to dislike in general.

Ipsos states that 25 percent of Canadians strongly oppose it and 20 percent somewhat oppose it, while 41 percent of people said they support carbon pricing and 45 percent oppose it.

Fifteen percent of people said they don't know or prefer not to answer.

According to the data, 68 percent of people from Atlantic Canada said they oppose carbon pricing, while 47 percent of Quebec residents support it.

Moreover, more than six in ten Canadians believe that increased government spending over the past three years is causing rising inflation, while 26 percent disagree.

A similar number of men (26 percent) and women (25 percent) said they disagree that government spending is driving inflation up.

Taxing the Rich

One-third of Canadians (33 percent) believe that people earning more than $250,000 a year can be considered rich, while just over a quarter (27 percent) say that wealthy people should be those earning more than $500,000 a year.

According to the survey, to be considered rich, 17 percent of people said you need to earn more than $100,000, 16 percent said more than $1 million, and seven percent said more than $5 million.

Data from Ipsos also shows that 71 percent of Canadians say that increasing corporate taxes will lead to higher prices for consumers, while 80 percent of people from Quebec feel the same way, whereas 24 percent of people from Ontario disagree.

Furthermore, sixty-one percent of Canadians say that high taxes will deter the wealthy from staying in Canada, with a similar proportion of people across all regions agreeing on this issue.

However, more than 43 percent of people believe that the rich should pay more than half of their income in taxes, while 33 percent say that the rich pay their fair share.

Western Canadians were more likely to disagree that the rich should pay 50 percent of their income in taxes, with 35 percent of people from that region saying that the rich shouldn’t be taxed more.

However, sixty-nine percent of people aged 55 and over say that the rich do not pay their fair share of taxes in Canada, while just under half (49 percent) of people aged 18 to 34 agree.

Methodology
These are the results of an online survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Montreal Economic Institute, where a sample of 1,020 Canadian residents aged 18 years and older were interviewed between June 29 and July 3, 2023.

Weighting was also used according to age, gender, and region to ensure that the sample composition represents the overall population according to the latest census information.

Furthermore, the accuracy of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval.

In this case, the results are accurate within +/- 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had all Canadian adults been surveyed.

Some totals may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.