Scheer pledges support to small businesses

SMALL business owners can look forward to a new Conservative government repealing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s tax increases and cutting red tape, announced Andrew Scheer at Cracker Jack’s Bar and Grill in Ontario’s Thorold on Tuesday.

“Justin Trudeau thinks small businesses are tax cheats,“ said Scheer. “In the last four years, it has become more expensive than ever to run a business. Trudeau’s Carbon Tax raised the price of gasoline and heating, making it harder to pay monthly bills. His payroll tax hikes hurt the bottom line, and his unprecedented tax hike on small businesses in 2017 – although Canada’s Conservatives and business leaders came together to try to stop it – ended up costing small businesses even more.”

The Conservatives say government should not stand in the way and make life more difficult for those trying to make a living and grow their business.

Not only are small businesses victim to the Trudeau government’s tax hikes, small businesses across the country are also struggling under a massive regulatory burden. Trudeau has imposed more than 4,300 job-killing, growth-choking federal regulations on Canadian business since 2015.

A new Conservative government will take several measures to support small businesses:

  • Repeal Trudeau’s tax increases on small business investments
  • Exempt spouses from Trudeau’s tax increases on small business dividends
  • Make it easier to navigate Canada’s tax system and the Canada Revenue Agency
  • Reduce federal regulations by 25 per cent
  • Implement a 2-for-1 rule for new regulations
  • Assign a Minister reporting directly to the Prime Minister to lead red tape reduction efforts
  • Mandate ministers and regulators to support innovation, economic growth, and global competitiveness
  • Champion Canada’s small businesses to the world 

“A new Conservative government will continue to celebrate small businesses as drivers of prosperity, and not view them merely as sources of revenue,” said Scheer. “It’s time to stop Justin Trudeau’s attacks on small business owners. It is time for Canada’s small businesses to get ahead.”

Quick Facts:

  • Of the 95,000 businesses that are created in Canada each year, barely 50 per cent will survive to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Over the last four years, it has become more difficult than ever to start and grow a business.
  • In 2017, Trudeau proposed a disastrous set of small business tax increases that were only partially abandoned because of effective pressure by Canada’s Conservatives and massive public outcry.
  • Trudeau tried to hike taxes on small businesses’ investment income to 73 per cent, and then went after small business owners’ spouses, ending a long-standing tax exemption on dividend payments.
  • The Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) reports there were 131,754 federal regulations on the books when Justin Trudeau took office in 2015. Public policy think-tank MEI reports that by 2018, the number of federal regulations rose to 136,121 – an increase of more than 4,300.
  • In late 2018, the Financial Post reported that regulatory burden was “killing Canada’s competitiveness.”