Tax breaks promised by Alberta’s next premier a real threat, says Business Council of BC

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – We can’t afford to be complacent. That caution comes as Alberta’s next premier promises tax breaks for B.C. companies willing to re-locate in his province.

The president of the Business Council of BC says our strong economy’s already at risk.

Greg D’Avignon says Jason Kenney’s threat to cut oil exports if the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion keeps getting stalled isn’t the only cause for concern.

“The reality is that the entire world is targeting B.C. to steal business every day of the week and that’s why we can’t be complacent and we can’t keep adding costs and complexity to doing business in British Columbia. And we’re seeing it with investment capital leaving the province. We’re seeing it with young people that can’t afford to live here, that are starting to take their talents and apply them elsewhere.”

“We’re not focused enough at the government level — federally or provincially — to make sure that we’re competitive in the marketplace,” he added.

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He says a key problem is a failure to streamline B.C.’s aging tax system, which hasn’t changed significantly since the 1940s.

D’Avignon also says over the past five years, taxes have collectively increased by more than $5 billion. “What that means is companies’ profitability is lower here over the course of time, which means they’re non-investing and/or they don’t have the resources to pay higher wages or employ more people.”

Alberta doesn’t have a provincial sales tax, whereas B.C. does. D’Avignon says that’s only one aspect to look at.

“How do we create a tax system for the digital economy of tomorrow? There’s a huge amount of economic activity that just isn’t taxed at all — online advertising, downloading of games, e-commerce. We’re losing out on a huge portion of revenue, as a province, to pay for childcare and quality health care that all of us are going to demand.”

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He doesn’t want to bring back the much-hated Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), but thinks it’s time to overhaul our aging tax system.

“We are adding costs through new regulation and new taxes at a time when the rest of the world is becoming more competitive by streamlining their taxes and modernizing them, so we need a complete review of BC’s tax system that’s been in place since the 1940’s when Queen Elizabeth was a princess.”

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