View from the publisher
Tax change blowback
Joe Mulcahy
The need for industry leadership has
never been more evident
If you ever wanted proof that we, as an industry, desperately
need a seat at the federal government table to voice our col-
lective concerns, witness what just happened to the Liberal’s
proposed tax-grab legislation. Changes intended by Finance
Minister Bill Morneau received tremendous blowback from small
business owners, farmers, doctors, those in the fishing industry,
opposition parties – even his own uncomfortable-looking Liberal
backbenchers! Watching them react during numerous question
periods while Morneau spoke, was like watching dental patients
waiting for their infected wisdom teeth to be extracted. Except
in this case, the word “wisdom” seemed to escape their
leadership.
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The result? Morneau is backing off some of the proposals. For
example, he said the government is abandoning the proposed
tax reform that would have restricted the conversion of income
into capital gains. That proposal would have made it more difficult
for business owners like myself to pass on their businesses to
their children. At press time, the Liberals were continuing their
cross-Canada “tax-change tour”. Morneau declared he has lis-
tened to the worries of middle-class Canadians and that technical
fixes were on the way. Ok, we’ll see.
My point is that when people speak up, government is forced
to listen. I believe the printing industry, which employs tens of
thousands of people in this country and generates tens of mil-
lions of dollars, must have a strong voice too. I hope the CPIA
(Canadian Printing Industries Association), like the legendary
Phoenix, will rise from the ashes in 2018 and become that voice
once again.
We need an industry organization that will lobby government
and stand up for our rights as members of the printing industry
on an ongoing basis – especially when one or two government
decisions could have such a tremendous financial impact on all
of us. The last thing we need is to add another layer of stress by
worrying about misguided and uninformed government making
punitive laws. We need to be there at the table long before these
decisions are made, to properly inform our lawmakers of their
possible ramific