> Quick googling says income tax has doubled in 2017.
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This is not true, and was likely posted by a conservative hardliners.
Canada uses an after-price sales tax like the USA, but in higher quantities - it will vary between 5% and 13% depending on province. Also, all provinces are currently implementing a carbon pricing system, so some provinces will have an additional sales tax on carbon intensive goods like gasoline. Unlike VAT, they're above the printed cost of the time, not included. These have been quite stable for a long time.
Also, Canada has income tax. Like the Americans, we run on a graduated income tax system, where you pay no tax at all on the first $11,000ish dollars you earn, and then in each tax bracket you pay increasing percentages on the money that falls within that bracket. There has been modest increases in the highest tax brackets to pay for a cut in the second-lowest bracket. Also some "boutique" exemptions have been closed or reduced recently.
In every case, there are taxes paid separately to both the federal government and provincial governments.
The biggest rising expense here on Ontario is not taxes, but "hydro" which is what Canadians call electricity (so much of it is generated by hydroelectric dams and power companies market themselves as hydro companies because of it). Ontario has had a history of mismanaging electrical bills, and that process has come to a head and so energy prices have skyrocketed recently.
While our taxes are normally somewhat higher than Americans, it hasn't been really a huge problem historically. Only now it's starting to come to a head with cost of living as the crazy housing market has driven mortgages through the roof and the hydro crisis have come together to create a cost-of-living problem in the Toronto area.
Finally, we have municipal property taxes (comparable to British council taxes). These are priced based on the value of your real-estate property. These are generally stable, as councils are very price-sensitive and are hesitant to raise them outside of a crisis.