Federal budget will include tax hike for wealthy Canadians, sources say

Tuesday's federal budget will include a tax increase on the richest Canadians, sources tell Radio-Canada.

It's not clear exactly what form the tax measure will take but senior Liberal sources have told RadioCanada that it will affect less than 1 per cent of Canadians.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers have been on a countrywide tour in recent weeks to make a series of pre-budget an‐ nouncements.

Those announcements add up to more than $38 bil‐ lion in commitments over a number of years. Because $17 billion of those commit‐ ments involve loan-based programs, about $21 billion could hit the government's bottom line directly.

Since much of the spend‐ ing side of the budget is al‐ ready public, the focus on to‐ morrow's budget likely will turn to how the government intends to pay for the new programs.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has ruled out tax in‐ creases on the middle class.

"We remain absolutely committed to being there for hardworking middle-class Canadians, and then we won't raise taxes on them," she said last week.

WATCH | Government to target wealthy Canadians in budget:

The Trudeau government has made tax changes that target wealthier Canadians in the past.

In last year's federal budget, the Liberals intro‐ duced significant changes to the alternative minimum tax rate. Those changes affected Canadians who earn more than $300,000 per year.

The House of Commons finance committee has rec‐ ommended the federal gov‐ ernment implement a wind‐ fall tax on companies in all sectors that generate "over‐ sized" profits during crises, as well as grocery giants, to fund another doubling of the GST rebate.