I recently read an article that quoted Philip Hochstein, the president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association.
When asked to comment on Adrian Dix’s speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade, Hochstein says, “I understand how he is going to regulate it and increase the regulatory burden. I understand he’s going to tax it, to increase corporate taxes. But how is he gong to grow the economy?”
This is a critical question that we should all be asking ourselves. If we believe that small business is the engine of the economy then how can a government that is so clearly against small business be good for the economy?
The NDP’s attack on small business started two years ago with its politicization of the HST and its poor implementation. This tax, although not good for those of you that do not contribute to the economy but resented paying a little extra for the dinner you went out for, was critical to make B.C.’s small manufacturing businesses competitive with those in other provinces and to help pay for health care and education, services we all hold dear.
With Dix’s recent confirmation that he will raise small business taxes and levy banks with a bank tax if elected, his attack on small business intensifies.
Small businesses need three things to survive; competitiveness, capital and profit. The clawing back or the HST took care of the first requirement and the increased corporate taxes and bank taxes will take care of the other two. If small business cannot make a profit or access cheap capital it will go away.
Small business owners are resilient and I am sure that if the NDP were able to sit us down and explain that there was a plan in place that would offset the damage that is being proposed and that the economy was in fact going to grow because of X,Y or Z, we would listen.
Unfortunately we have not heard it yet.
NDP, please come forward, please show us the argument, give us a reason to stick around should you get elected, because I love B.C. and would hate to have to leave.
TOM CAINE
Kamloops
