Chamber of Commerce wants apology from feds
Business community ‘offended and disgusted’ by finance minister’s remarks
The Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive wants federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau to apologize for comments about its proposed tax changes that “offended and disgusted” the city’s small businesses.
“When you call businesses who are operating legally under tax system in place in your country ‘tax cheats,’ when you tell them that they’re cheating the system and they’re actually not, that deserves an apology,” Darla Lindbjerg said.
Lindbjerg and the heads of other chambers of commerce, who collectively represent 200,000 businesses, outlined their concerns about the proposed changes during a meeting with Morneau this weekend in Fredericton, N.B.
Morneau gets points for showing up, Lindbjerg said, but his presentation left much to be desired as it did not contain many new details about the changes, which have drawn the ire of business groups since being unveiled in July.
“Middle class Canadians and small businesses are not the focus of our proposed changes,” Morneau told the chambers of commerce this weekend, according to a transcript provided by his office.
The federal government says the changes are necessary because corporations provide tax advantages to some high earners that are unavailable to most people, and evidence suggests a “significant” share of taxable income has shifted to corporations.
Morneau has said the public is “hearing much misinformation about these tax changes.”
That has not assuaged the fears of many Saskatoon-based business owners, who have been writing letters to the federal government and, last week, gathered downtown to protest the changes, which they say will affect their bottom line.
Lindbjerg said that while Canadian chambers of commerce are open to revisiting the country’s tax regime, the changes — which Morneau pledged this weekend to tweak but not scrap — will cool business investment.