Pierre Poilievre says a Conservative-led government would allow Canadians to make a $5,000 top-up to their Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), but only if that money is being invested in Canadian companies.
The Conservative leader made the announcement at a sheet metal company in Coquitlam, B.C. and framed it as a way to keep investment dollars at home in the face of punishing tariffs from the United States.
“This will bring billions of dollars of investment into Canadian companies, who will then spend it on factories, equipment, tools, wages and making our economy self reliant and strong, our economy has been starved of investment”, said Poilievre.
However, some tax policy experts point out many TFSA holders often opt for relatively safe investment options like GICs, and with the threat of a trade war with the U.S., Canadian equity investments could be riskier.
“That same threat of Trump tariffs that argues for this type of policy also means that some of these Canadian investments may have a lower rate of return and a higher risk to the investor than other qualified investments,” said Fred O’Riordan, national tax policy leader at Ernst & Young.
The account was introduced by the Harper government and reached a maximum contribution limit of $10,000 in 2015. In 2016, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government rolled back that amount to $5,500, but has raised it gradually to $7,000.
The proposed changes to the TFSA are being criticized by Liberals who say Poilievre has voted against measures like the First Home Savings Accounts and investment tax credits in the 2023 federal budget.
“He has not shown through his actions that he’s supportive of tax measure that support Canadians,” Liberal party spokesperson Carolyn Svonkin said.
Peter Julian, NDP candidate for New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville, criticized the proposal telling CTV News it will only “benefit the top five per cent of Canadians”.
Julian says only a small number of Canadians actually contribute to the limit of their TFSA’s. The latest statistics from the Canada Revenue Agency shows the total number of Canadians who have a TFSA is just under 18 million, while the number of people who have maximized contributions is just over 1.5 million.
“The main beneficiaries of the proposal would be higher income contributors, rather than lower income Canadians who can’t accumulate sufficient savings to contribute,” O’Riordan told CTV News.
“To put in place a policy that will benefit the top five per cent of Canadians to the exclusion of everybody else doesn’t make any sense at all,” Julian told reporters. “Pierre Poilievre’s approach is just completely wrong-headed.”
The Conservatives’ plan to boost investment in Canadian companies comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order for 25 per cent tariffs on foreign-made cars and light trucks and a week before the April 2 deadline for additional global tariffs.
“Knock it off,” said Poilievre in a direct message to Trump. “We will never be the 51st state, but we can once again be friends with the United States if the president reverses course on these disastrous tariff threats.”
