It was an honour to appear alongside the Investment Industry Association of Canada before the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance. Our presentation focused on the recently announced changes to the taxation of private corporations. We believe that these tax changes are unfair and will harm the Canadian economy.
Small businesses are the lifeblood of the Canadian economy. These businesses and their owners face significant challenges including increasing minimum wage levels, increasing interest rates, skyrocketing housing and real estate prices, mounting debt and fierce competition from U.S. firms. The proposed changes will harm small businesses and their owners by removing the incentives to own a small business that are necessary to help compensate them for the risks and sacrifices they, and their families, need to make so that their businesses just even have the potential to succeed. These changes will stifle the entrepreneurial spirit and discourage younger generations from starting their own businesses. We are also extremely concerned that these changes will cause many hard-working Canadian entrepreneurs to consider moving their businesses and their capital to more business-friendly countries due to an uneven playing field that the proposed tax system will create. This would be a disastrous outcome for Canada. We need to encourage our entrepreneurs to invest in Canada; not create an environment that would have them consider leaving the country or discourage them from taking the required risks in the first place.
As a professional accounting firm, it is important for us to identify and address issues that will potentially harm hard-working Canadians and the business environment that is necessary for them to prosper. It is crucial that the government understands these concerns, and the ramifications of their tax policies, as they will have long-term consequences to all Canadians. We will continue to voice our concerns to the best our ability to achieve this understanding.