Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
CALU was very pleased to accept your invitation to present its recommendations for the 2019 budget.
To begin, let me tell you a bit about our organization.
CALU has 670 industry leading members including insurance and financial advisors as well as accounting, tax, legal and actuarial experts.
Our goal is to protect Canadians' financial future through sound long-term planning. Canadians rely on the expertise of these professionals for their investments so they can live a more secure and prosperous life.
Through a strategic partnership with Advocis, CALU represents the interests of more than 13,000 advisors on advanced planning issues to protect the financial future of millions of Canadians. Our advisors support small and medium-sized businesses by providing expert advice on essential financial products such as investment and retirement solutions, employee benefit programs, and life, critical illness, and disability insurance.
It is from this perspective that we prepared our brief, which addresses three themes. I will get straight to it.
We have highlighted in previous pre-budget submissions the pending long-term care crisis in Canada. As Canadians live longer, they are more likely to be managing a chronic disease. They will need some degree of long-term care support in their homes or in institutional settings. Anyone who has cared for an aging parent is acutely aware of both the emotional and financial toll. CALU is working with the financial services industry to explore initiatives to educate Canadians on their funding obligations for long-term care and identify suitable investment in risk-based product solutions.
We believe the federal government has a leadership role to play on the issue. Specifically, we suggest that the federal government undertake a number of initiatives. These could include convening a federal-provincial-territorial ministers committee to identify and develop a national approach for dealing with long-term care funding, and holding a national stakeholders symposium to discuss and debate seniors issues and develop appropriate recommendations.
I would like to turn briefly to the 2018 budget commitment regarding the implementation of national pharmacare. We are currently working on this critical issue. We will have more to say in the months to come. In general terms, we believe a national approach should strive to close the gap for those without drug benefits while maintaining existing systems of coverage. We also caution, however, that funding a national program must be carefully considered and taxation of group health insurance premiums not be considered as a means of funding this program.
Mr. Chair, we sincerely appreciate discussions with you and other parliamentarians over the past year with respect to the taxation of private corporations, as you've heard from the previous panellists. This is an important issue for not only our members but all Canadian business owners. While CALU appreciates the government's response to concerns expressed during the consultation period relating to the tax on split income, or TOSI, and passive investment rules, we believe the government needs to make further changes as part of a commitment to undertake a comprehensive review of the system governing private corporations. This would give immediate reassurance to the small business community and ensure in the longer term that tax rules continue to support the growth of the small business sector in Canada.
Our submission identifies six specific areas that could be part of any such review. These include the tax on split income rules; passive investments and small business deductions; employee benefits for employees of a small business; tax integration; intergenerational transfers of a business; and tax competitiveness with the United States.
My colleague Kevin Wark and I would be pleased to go into further detail during the question period.
The tax changes announced over a year ago radically changed the tax regime for SMEs. We must always ensure that the regime is fair, consistent, and predictable, so that SME owners can invest in their business, save for retirement, and support their family and community.
Thank you for your attention.