Unlikely that tax will be warmly received in Alberta: expert

Yedlin said the chamber echoes CAPP'S statement.

It's unlikely the change will be warmly received in Alberta, as increasing the capital gains tax could hinder investment in Alberta due to the higher cost of selling a business, said Charles St-arnaud, chief economist at Alberta Central.

“There's still some concern in terms of growth in the investment environment,” he said. “It might, at the margin, change some of the mood surrounding investment.”

However, the effect will be spread out across several sectors, St-arnaud said, compared with previous measures the federal government has taken, such as its one-time windfall tax on financial institutions reaping above-average profits.

The Alberta business community had feared ahead of the budget that such a tax would be applied to the oil and gas industry.

Overall, St-arnaud added, the budget will still likely allow for a potential June rate cut from the Bank of Canada.

Yedlin commended the federal government for its entrepreneurs incentive, which should have a positive effect in Alberta due to its expanding startup universe.

“When you have a university in the city that is generating more startups than any other university in the country, this is great news,” Yedlin said.

CAPP also commended the federal government for including the oil and gas industry in the $5-billion National Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program, which provides loans to help Indigenous communities invest in natural resources and energy products. The association called it “a significant advancement.”

Meanwhile, small- and medium-sized businesses will soon receive a long-awaited carbon tax refund from Ottawa, which was holding on to billions of dollars while it figured out how to deliver them. Overall, $2.5 billion will be doled out to more than 600,000 businesses through a refundable tax credit — as long as they file their 2023 tax return by July 15.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has been advocating for those revenues to be distributed.

CFIB president Dan Kelly said in a statement the group was encouraged to see the province expand its eligibility rules, which the CFIB initially estimated would have only allowed about 20,000 businesses to benefit from the rebate.