Reform taxes and deficits, business group urges Canada leaders
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is calling for the parties to commit to smaller deficits, tax reform, reducing tax burdens for business and supporting the nation’s resource sectors. Those are among 37 recommendations in a report the chamber will release Thursday.
The call comes amid speculation Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will trigger an election, possibly within days. Within corporate Canada, some executives are worried that political leaders are devoting little serious attention to fixing the nation’s long-term competitiveness problem.
“At this point none of the parties have set out a strategy for growth that will enable us to get to where we need to be,” Perrin Beatty, the chamber’s chief executive officer, said in a phone interview. “We need to have much better growth than we did prior to Covid and that’s going to be very hard to achieve.”
In its report, the chamber did ask all parties to extend pandemic-related support for businesses into next year, as well as forgiving interest payments on government short-term loans.
The recommendations were far-ranging, and include calls to make the recovery more inclusive by speeding up the indigenous reconciliation process, creating new opportunities for diversity-owned business, and providing more generous tax deductions for childcare expenses.
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