Ontario Chamber makes Pre-Budget Submission
Today the Ontario Chamber of Commerce provided the Ontario Government with 11 recommendations for the upcoming provincial budget that will help businesses manage costs and secure the province’s competitive advantage. The submission, presented to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, calls on the government to implement taxation reforms and smart infrastructure and transportation spending to maximize growth and benefit all regions of Ontario.
- With the cost of doing business in the province continuing to increase, we recommend that the Province reinstates its scheduled reductions in the provincial corporate income tax, reducing the rate from 11.5 percent to 10 percent.
- The proposed US tax reform bill will lower US federal taxes by 15 percent, putting Ontario at a significant disadvantage.
- The 2009 Ontario Budget committed to lowering the corporate tax rate to 10 percent, but was halted due to the recession.
- The OCC recommends Ontario create a bracketed small business tax deduction system to encourage growth for Ontario’s start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises.
- In Ontario, 71 percent of private-sector jobs are created by activities of small and medium-sized enterprises.
- We also want to see smarter spending on major infrastructure and transportation, spending that will maximize our economic growth and put money back into our economy.
- For every $1 billion in infrastructure spending creates 16,700 jobs and boosts the GDP by $1.14 billion.
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As the cost of doing business in the province continues to increase, and Ontario employers take on one of the largest wage increases in recent history, we must ensure we are doing all we can so that Ontario remains competitive. We need more support for business and the government’s commitments made in last year’s Fall Economic Statement are simply insufficient.
