Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Hello ladies and gentlemen and members of the Standing Committee on Finance.
First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge Mr. Fergus and remind him that the CSN stands in solidarity with those affected by the tornadoes in the Outaouais area. We have already said it, but I wanted to reiterate that.
I am the treasurer of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, which is a labour organization made up of nearly 1,500 unions representing some 300,000 workers, primarily in the province of Quebec. Since we already sent you our brief on August 1, I will simply give an overview of the eight recommendations that we made in it.
The first two recommendations have to do with taxation. I would like to remind you that the CSN welcomed the government's tax reforms aimed at making personal income tax more progressive. The CSN also agrees with the tightening of tax rules governing Canadian small businesses, even though the government did not go as far as we would have liked.
First, we believe that the government must do more in that regard, and we recommend that it introduce measures to protect the tax base by enhancing Canada's taxation measures. These measures include revising the capital gains inclusion rate because, as they say, a dollar is a dollar; tightening stock option deductions; reducing tax breaks for oil and gas companies, and I will come back to the issue of climate change later; and replacing research and development tax credits with direct government assistance, which we believe would be a more effective policy and provide better support in that area.
Second, the Government of Canada participates in G20 and OECD initiatives to combat tax havens, which is good, but not enough. The CSN participates in Échec aux paradis fiscaux, an organization that I believe you will be hearing from this morning in your second group of witnesses. That organization is of the opinion that the government needs to put some order in its own house. The CSN shares that opinion and is calling on the government to amend the regulations governing tax information exchange agreements and tax treaties in order to make it impossible for companies to transfer dividends back to Canada from tax havens completely tax free. We know that the various levels of government are losing a lot of money that way and we think that the federal government should take action in that regard.
I would now like to talk about employment insurance issues. The CSN believes that a great deal remains to be done in order to make the employment insurance program responsive to the realities of the working world. The government's initiatives to deal with the specific problems experienced by seasonal workers are worthwhile but insufficient. The measures related to training set out in the last budget and the announcement that was made on August 20 regarding a two-year pilot project that provides for five additional weeks of benefits are steps in the right direction but not a definitive solution. The government needs to recognize the reality of seasonal work and provide lasting solutions for workers in communities that largely depend on such activities. The government must therefore review the employment insurance program and find a lasting solution to the “black hole” experienced by seasonal workers. Some regions of Quebec and eastern Canada are particularly affected by this problem.
I also want to talk about trade relations between Canada and the United States and fine-tune what we said in our brief a bit since, if we are to believe the American President's many tweets, the situation seems to have evolved somewhat since August 1. A new trade agreement has also been signed since then.
Canada and Quebec are being hit hard by the application of U.S. tariffs. The CSN feels that the Canadian government had no choice but to respond to the U.S. tariffs, matching the responses of Mexico, the European Union and China. The CSN applauds the $2 billion in measures announced by the federal government to protect Canada's steel, aluminum and manufacturing industries and workers.
We are disappointed that the negotiations surrounding the newly concluded United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement did not result in the elimination of the tariffs on steel and aluminum. We are also disappointed about the whole supply management issue. I'm sure others will have more to say about that and will say it much more eloquently than I can. The government must follow that issue closely and review, when necessary, the assistance it is granting to the steel and aluminum industries in order to help Canadian businesses in those sectors to withstand the tariffs imposed by the United States.
In the face of the U.S. tax reforms, Canadian employer associations are currently pressuring the federal government to reduce corporate and personal income tax rates.
Do I have a minute left?