The Vancouver Board of Trade has given the government top marks for its just-released budget, giving it an “A” grade overall.
The board’s report card looked at four categories: spending control, tax competitiveness, debt management and long-term vision. In each category except tax competitiveness, the Board of Trade gave the budget an “A.” On the tax competitiveness front, the budget received a “B+.”
Iain Black, the Board of Trade’s president and CEO, told Business in Vancouver that the budget delivered on many of the things that the board had been asking for, including balancing the budget by 2015.
Black said a key gain for B.C. was the budget’s commitment to create a single window for environmental assessment. (See “Federal budget good news for mining sector” – BIV Business Today, March 29.)
“We welcome the establishment of a single window for environmental assessment because we think it will increase the credibility and effectiveness of our environmental processes and encourage investment in our province, as well as accelerating some of the mega projects and the jobs that are involved in those,” he said.
Why didn’t the budget get full marks on tax competitiveness?
“I think we that we do have a very complex – and I would suggest too complex and administratively difficult – tax system, especially for small businesses,” he said. “So we think there’s still some work that can be done there.”
However, Black said the reason the budget scored as high as a “B+” in that category was due to the government’s move to give more Canadian businesses access to a simpler GST filing system.
Black said the budget raised the ceiling of what businesses can earn and still be eligible for the simplified filing process. The ceiling has been raised to $400,000 in net income from $200,000.
“What it means is, if you make $200,000 as year in net income as a small business, you are eligible to file a much-simplified tax form, which as a small business person translates directly into a whole lot less hours spent servicing the government rather than my customers and, God forbid, spending time with my family.”
