House unanimously adopts Liberals' promised income tax cut

The House of Commons unanimously voted in favour of the Liberals' promised income tax cut on Thursday.

The Liberals promised to bring in a one percentage point reduction in the lowest marginal tax rate — taking it from 15 per cent to 14 per cent — during this spring's election campaign.

The government introduced a "ways and means" motion to make the tax changes last week and all MPs voted in favour of the motion on Thursday.

A ways and means motion allows the government to start making changes to the tax code before such changes are passed in legislation — but a bill will still need to be passed.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne introduced legislation on Thursday morning that will formally adopt the tax cut into law.

Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to implement the tax cut by Canada Day. The Liberals say it will save two-income families up to $840 a year in 2026.

Prior to Thursday's vote, Conservatives had signalled that they would be willing to support the tax cut — even though they said it should go further.

"We are the party of taxpayers. We will vote for every tax cut always and everywhere. We love taxpayers and we want taxpayers to be better off," Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said last week.

During the election campaign, Poilievre had promised to drop the same rate to 12.75 per cent.

In addition to the income tax cut, the motion — and pending legislation — will remove the GST on homes under $1 million for first-time buyers and purge the consumer carbon tax from law.

Carney cut the carbon tax for consumers via regulations in March. The pending legislation will be the final nail in the coffin for what was once a key Liberal climate policy.