The explanation is simple: Canada is socialist. As Margaret Thatcher said, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.". The problem with Canadians is that they don't like to run out of money to support their socialism, so even suggesting to consider giving up to taxes is worse than blasphemy, it's counter-revolution.
Canada is in no way a socialist country. Perhaps the term you're looking for is "social democracy".
Tomato, tomato. Living in a former communist country that was calling itself "socialist" you can call Canada any way you want, it is socialist. I am not saying communist, that's your "democracy" difference between the two.
That's not how Canada works. We're way to the left of the US. Furthermore, that's outside the power of the provincial government to do.
I understand that it's not politically viable. But I don't think that disqualifies it from a suggestion worth exploring. Politics can change, especially when the money starts running out.
Ack! I wish our political system were so flexible as to permit this sort of exploration!
It is within the power of a province to credit 100% of provincial taxes back, although I wouldn't want to try that if I was governing a "have not" province, especially if part of the deal was cutting essential services subsidized by transfer payments.