A BUDGET for VOTERS, rather than BUSINESS
NEW MONEY FOR SKILLS TRAINING, MOVES TO EASE REGULATORY BURDEN
Finance Minister Bill Morneau delivered a pre-election budget built for voters, not businesses, disappointing those who hoped for a broad-based corporate tax cut, a comprehensive review of canada’s aging tax code or other measures to boost competitiveness.
Following a fall economic statement designed to address business concerns, Morneau’s fourth budget marked a hard shift back toward middle class issues that appeal directly to the electorate, including support for first-time homebuyers, seniors and skills training.
“they did what they were going to do for businesses in the fall,” said Sébastien lavoie, chief economist at laurentian Bank Securities. “You could argue those moves came too late, but it was clear there weren’t going to be any more.”
nevertheless, some of the key pillars of Morneau’s fourth budget, while designed for a different audience, will also benefit canadian businesses, said craig alexander, chief economist at Deloitte canada. among the items that will have the most obvious impact is spending related to skills training.
More than 40 per cent of businesses have reported labour and skills shortages, with many job vacancies remaining unfilled, which suggests “a skills mismatch,” alexander said.
“they are investing in human capital to address that,” he said. “and if you look at us versus other countries, a key advantage of ours has been talent. this budget doubles down on that.”
the federal budget earmarks more than $1.7 billion for skills training programs including a new non-taxable credit to help pay for training fees. Under the program, workers between the ages of 25 and 64 would accumulate a credit of $250 each year to a lifetime maximum of $5000. Starting in 2020, these credits can be used to match worker investments in skills training.
a new employment insurance training Support Benefit offers 55 per cent of average income for up to four weeks of paid leave to support training.
“We’re going to need more resilient workers to deal with the disruption of technology,” Alexander said.
“Having the worker contribute some of the funding and having the government match that funding basically cuts the cost of training but also ensures that there is a worker motivation to be really successful because they have skin in the game.”
Not all were as enthusiastic. While supportive of efforts to retrain workers and address skills shortages, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business was leery of the price tag, suggesting the Canada Training Benefit would increase the cost of the Employment Insurance (EI) system by $300 million per year with no guarantee that what workers study will match the needs of employers.
The budget made some moves to address regulatory burden in the form of “regulatory roadmaps” to address red tape in agri-food and aquaculture, health and biosciences and transportation and infrastructure.
The measures include the introduction of “regulatory sandboxes” or “safe spaces” that allow innovative products and services to be tested without immediately being subjected to regulatory requirements.
A new advisory committee on regulatory competitiveness will also be established to identify opportunities to streamline regulations.
To boost research and development, the budget also amends the Scientific Research and Development Tax Incentive Program, which provides a 35-per-cent refundable tax credit to smalland medium-sized businesses and a 15-per-cent credit to all other businesses conducting scientific research and experimental development. While access to the enhanced 35-per-cent credit is determined by a business’s level of income and capital, Morneau’s budget removes the income threshold, widening its availability to more companies.