With respect to our submission and the area of tax and duties, achieving competitive rates in order to maintain and improve Canada's ability to attract capital investments and jobs is an important step. It must continue to ensure global competitiveness and attract investment. We urge you to continue the reduction of the federal corporate income tax rate, as scheduled in the current legislation, to 15% by 2012 and to continue the staged reduction of the most favoured nation import duties.
Further, we believe the GST/HST threshold is too low. It's remained unchanged at $30,000 since inception in the early 1990s. Other nation thresholds are $80,000 to $125,000, and we ask you to support our resolution to increase the threshold to $75,000 effective January 2011. This would result in allowing for real growth and a solid financial base before adding the additional burden of red tape for both government and SME start-ups. Your long-term strategy should ensure that the debt-to-GDP ratio falls below 30% by 2015.
Program spending should be limited to about 1.6% per year, returning to a balanced budget by 2015. I believe these are supported by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in their submission as well.
Reducing red tape is important to business. Changes are needed to the Income Tax Act permitting the consolidation of owned company tax returns. Further, reducing the administration burden that ineligible versus eligible dividend tracking creates should also occur. Standardized T-forms and box locations are needed to reduce filing errors in a lot of forms, our accountant members tell us. Creating a standard charitable donation T-form would go a long way in reducing red tape as well for many existing charities that create their own forms.
When completing program reviews we urge the government to ask basic and fundamental questions when reviewing spending beyond direct program expenses. A full-scale review of all programs should include a cause and effect analysis.
Border crossing support.... In southwestern Ontario, manufacturers have proximate and strategic access to over 50% of United States markets and supplies as measured in terms of GDP economic activity. These Canadian businesses are vulnerable to increasing complexity and costs of crossing the border between Canada and the United States. Presently, importers and exporters must apply to both the Canadian partners in production program and customs self-assessment programs to gain benefits such as FAST. If the programs were harmonized with the American customs-trade partnership against terrorism program, then there would only be one application, like NEXUS, thereby reducing the red tape and burden on business to comply with both programs. Right now there is a mutual recognition of these programs by both countries.
Canada Border Services Agency is in the process of establishing service delivery standards. The elimination of summer student programs means inspection lanes during the busy summer season are not being staffed during peak times. CBSA has done a very good job this past summer by adjusting some schedules, but budgetary pressures still leave the busiest ports--such as ours in Sarnia-Point Edward, at the Blue Water Bridge--inadequately maintained, affecting trade and tourism with our largest trading partner, the United States.
Environmentally, Sarnia industries responsibly manage hundreds of chemicals as raw materials, process intermediates, and products. The overlap between federal and provincial chemical management and inventory programs creates unnecessary costs and inefficiency. We urge the federal government to work with the Province of Ontario to harmonize their new Toxics Reduction Act requirements with Environment Canada's more established chemical management plan.
Under next-generation sustainable industries, there are significant gaps in the design and application of programs supporting Canada’s vision to be a leader in new technologies, including biotechnology. A more comprehensive scope is required to accomplish this vision. The federal government should work with other levels of government, private sector lenders, innovator companies, and venture capital firms to develop an action plan to promote and finance the development and commercialization of new technologies, as possible grant programs are declining in the future.