Legge: Business can't give more
Adam Legge, for the Calgary Herald ADAM LEGGE, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD
Published on: September 23, 2017 | Last Updated: September 23, 2017 3:00 AM MDT
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Where did opinion on business go so wrong?
I lay awake at night these days, wondering how could we have gotten it so wrong.
Canada, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, is a nation at the tipping point between trust and distrust of business. One more percentage point into distrust, and the majority of Canadians will be distrustful of business.
This is manifesting itself in many ways: public rhetoric toward businesses, government policy, and a disconnect between the great services Canadians want – schools, health care – and the economic activity that makes this possible.
How could we have got here?
There was a time when businesses were valued in society for the employment they create, the better quality of life for citizens, and for their contribution to innovation, taxes and the economy.
I recognize that there are high-profile media stories of businesses and leaders who are unethical. Business can and should do better than this. But the reality is those are the significant exceptions to the general rule that we have forgotten: that the vast majority of businesses are owned by our friends, families and neighbours and they make our cities, communities and lives better.
Business has become the target. The target of distrust. The target of cash grabs. The target of “I know a way to make up the budget shortfall.†We have to end this. Why? For two reasons; each one a side of the same coin.
The first side is that business cannot keep contributing. The federal government’s proposed tax changes to close “loopholes†of privately held companies in Canada brings about a draconian and blunt instrument approach that will devastate Canadian entrepreneurship and investment.
The feds espouse they want to protect the middle class – well, the measures they are proposing will significantly harm the middle class.
For while they may be business owners, the majority of entrepreneurs who these changes will affect would be classified as middle class. They don’t own yachts. Or Lamborghinis. Or houses in Bermuda.
They are incredibly hard-working Canadians, devoting seven days a week and 18-hour days to their business. They hire people. They create jobs. They help make our economy thrive. If we target them, companies will leave Canada. Jobs will be lost. Investment won’t come.
These tax hikes on small business will disincentivize new young entrepreneurs. They will penalize legitimate businesses and farmers. They will hurt families, like the risk-taker trying to get a new innovative energy company off the ground, and her wife taking care of every other area of the family to make that possible.
The federal government simply has this one all wrong.
But they are in good company. Our provincial government continues to saddle business with ever-increasing costs. As one cabinet minister told me once, “business can always give more.†Actually no. They can’t.
In Calgary, businesses have faced new cost drivers from every level of government recently, including federal and provincial. And, due to the loss of downtown property values, many businesses outside downtown have seen increased municipal property taxes – some as high as 200 per cent.
All of this adds up to what’s called the layered cost burden. In layman’s terms: the money that government wants from business has piled up to be so much that a good number have, or are considering, closing. Calgary is now seeing more shuttered businesses. I am learning of almost one a day.
Consider your favourite local fitness facility, restaurant, or a garment manufacturer. In the past two years, they have faced a carbon tax, that will go up by 50 per cent in January; minimum wages that increase again Oct. 1 – a total increase so far of 33 per cent over the course of a recession; increased property taxes, depending on their location. Now, they are likely staring down the barrel of new small business tax changes.
There are fashion designers, fitness entrepreneurs and restaurant owners who have eked by for the last two recessionary years, making no profit, even losing a bit of money, and when they look at the year ahead, and all the new costs they’ll face, the effort just doesn’t make sense anymore. That’s tragic.
About 90 per cent of businesses in Calgary are small businesses. They are locally owned. They have roots in the community. And they don’t make massive profits or be able to pass all cost increases on to the customer. They just can’t keep paying. There is no more to give.
So I have a message to every elected official from the entrepreneurs of Calgary: please stop going after business to find the money. It isn’t there. And every time you add a cost, someone loses a job. Or a dollar of potential investment flows out of the country. We cannot afford this.
The other side of the same coin is a truth that has been forgotten or dismissed for some time now, that needs to resurface. It is this: nearly everything we hold dear in our society – health care, education, parks, recreation, the arts – all of it exists because of a dollar of profit.
That dollar of profit can be taxed to provide public services and invest in our communities. That dollar of profit can be used to hire another person who will pay income tax, which goes toward government spending on our quality of life. That dollar of profit can be invested in the company to grow and create more jobs, locations and opportunities, and more profit that can be taxed. And so on, and so forth.
Profit and business have become dirty words these days. They don’t win votes. They are viewed with suspicion. I wish this weren’t the case, because we need business. We need profits.
The majority of Canadians wouldn’t have jobs if business and profit didn’t exist. We wouldn’t have our schools, our parks, our teachers and our nurses. Or the government employees who work hard every day to keep our streets safe and clean.
We forget that we have all that because of business and profit. If we don’t want to lose that, let’s view business and profit as essential parts of Canada and find ways to have them flourish in vibrant, ethical and sustainable ways.
Let’s create positive tax rules that foster investment and hiring, not curtail it. Let’s use thoughtful approaches versus blunt instruments. Let’s stop believing that business can always pay a little more.
We need to get back to being a country that supports and nurtures business, as one important part of a well-functioning society. In specific, the part that enables much of those things that we value and cherish as Canadians..
Adam Legge is the president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce
I think his opinion I would value over the NFU , take a look at the bio of the NFU president . Remind you of anyone on here.
Been in canada 25 years brought all his ideals with him and wants to "educate" the dumb colonials on how it should be see hes not even farming anymore. ( starting a farm on Vancouver island now what ever that means)
Likely came here in search of opportunities he didnt have where he was but then wants to change things to be exactly how they were where he came from Brilliant thought process.
Adam Legge, for the Calgary Herald ADAM LEGGE, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD
Published on: September 23, 2017 | Last Updated: September 23, 2017 3:00 AM MDT
SHARE
ADJUST
COMMENT
Where did opinion on business go so wrong?
I lay awake at night these days, wondering how could we have gotten it so wrong.
Canada, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, is a nation at the tipping point between trust and distrust of business. One more percentage point into distrust, and the majority of Canadians will be distrustful of business.
This is manifesting itself in many ways: public rhetoric toward businesses, government policy, and a disconnect between the great services Canadians want – schools, health care – and the economic activity that makes this possible.
How could we have got here?
There was a time when businesses were valued in society for the employment they create, the better quality of life for citizens, and for their contribution to innovation, taxes and the economy.
I recognize that there are high-profile media stories of businesses and leaders who are unethical. Business can and should do better than this. But the reality is those are the significant exceptions to the general rule that we have forgotten: that the vast majority of businesses are owned by our friends, families and neighbours and they make our cities, communities and lives better.
Business has become the target. The target of distrust. The target of cash grabs. The target of “I know a way to make up the budget shortfall.†We have to end this. Why? For two reasons; each one a side of the same coin.
The first side is that business cannot keep contributing. The federal government’s proposed tax changes to close “loopholes†of privately held companies in Canada brings about a draconian and blunt instrument approach that will devastate Canadian entrepreneurship and investment.
The feds espouse they want to protect the middle class – well, the measures they are proposing will significantly harm the middle class.
For while they may be business owners, the majority of entrepreneurs who these changes will affect would be classified as middle class. They don’t own yachts. Or Lamborghinis. Or houses in Bermuda.
They are incredibly hard-working Canadians, devoting seven days a week and 18-hour days to their business. They hire people. They create jobs. They help make our economy thrive. If we target them, companies will leave Canada. Jobs will be lost. Investment won’t come.
These tax hikes on small business will disincentivize new young entrepreneurs. They will penalize legitimate businesses and farmers. They will hurt families, like the risk-taker trying to get a new innovative energy company off the ground, and her wife taking care of every other area of the family to make that possible.
The federal government simply has this one all wrong.
But they are in good company. Our provincial government continues to saddle business with ever-increasing costs. As one cabinet minister told me once, “business can always give more.†Actually no. They can’t.
In Calgary, businesses have faced new cost drivers from every level of government recently, including federal and provincial. And, due to the loss of downtown property values, many businesses outside downtown have seen increased municipal property taxes – some as high as 200 per cent.
All of this adds up to what’s called the layered cost burden. In layman’s terms: the money that government wants from business has piled up to be so much that a good number have, or are considering, closing. Calgary is now seeing more shuttered businesses. I am learning of almost one a day.
Consider your favourite local fitness facility, restaurant, or a garment manufacturer. In the past two years, they have faced a carbon tax, that will go up by 50 per cent in January; minimum wages that increase again Oct. 1 – a total increase so far of 33 per cent over the course of a recession; increased property taxes, depending on their location. Now, they are likely staring down the barrel of new small business tax changes.
There are fashion designers, fitness entrepreneurs and restaurant owners who have eked by for the last two recessionary years, making no profit, even losing a bit of money, and when they look at the year ahead, and all the new costs they’ll face, the effort just doesn’t make sense anymore. That’s tragic.
About 90 per cent of businesses in Calgary are small businesses. They are locally owned. They have roots in the community. And they don’t make massive profits or be able to pass all cost increases on to the customer. They just can’t keep paying. There is no more to give.
So I have a message to every elected official from the entrepreneurs of Calgary: please stop going after business to find the money. It isn’t there. And every time you add a cost, someone loses a job. Or a dollar of potential investment flows out of the country. We cannot afford this.
The other side of the same coin is a truth that has been forgotten or dismissed for some time now, that needs to resurface. It is this: nearly everything we hold dear in our society – health care, education, parks, recreation, the arts – all of it exists because of a dollar of profit.
That dollar of profit can be taxed to provide public services and invest in our communities. That dollar of profit can be used to hire another person who will pay income tax, which goes toward government spending on our quality of life. That dollar of profit can be invested in the company to grow and create more jobs, locations and opportunities, and more profit that can be taxed. And so on, and so forth.
Profit and business have become dirty words these days. They don’t win votes. They are viewed with suspicion. I wish this weren’t the case, because we need business. We need profits.
The majority of Canadians wouldn’t have jobs if business and profit didn’t exist. We wouldn’t have our schools, our parks, our teachers and our nurses. Or the government employees who work hard every day to keep our streets safe and clean.
We forget that we have all that because of business and profit. If we don’t want to lose that, let’s view business and profit as essential parts of Canada and find ways to have them flourish in vibrant, ethical and sustainable ways.
Let’s create positive tax rules that foster investment and hiring, not curtail it. Let’s use thoughtful approaches versus blunt instruments. Let’s stop believing that business can always pay a little more.
We need to get back to being a country that supports and nurtures business, as one important part of a well-functioning society. In specific, the part that enables much of those things that we value and cherish as Canadians..
Adam Legge is the president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce
I think his opinion I would value over the NFU , take a look at the bio of the NFU president . Remind you of anyone on here.
Been in canada 25 years brought all his ideals with him and wants to "educate" the dumb colonials on how it should be see hes not even farming anymore. ( starting a farm on Vancouver island now what ever that means)
Likely came here in search of opportunities he didnt have where he was but then wants to change things to be exactly how they were where he came from Brilliant thought process.
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