Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the committee members for inviting me this morning to present on behalf of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce. For those of you who don't know, the Alberta Chambers of Commerce is a voluntary federation of 126 community chambers in the province of Alberta, which in turn represent in excess of 24,000 businesses in the province, and approximately 95% of those members are small and medium-sized enterprises.
Why am I here today? I am not here to ask for money. As my colleague mentioned earlier, I'm here to urge caution to the Government of Canada. When setting the budget for this coming year, be aware of the impact of cumulative effects and cumulative layering of costs on businesses.
Certainly in Alberta we're going through some issues right now with the oil industry, the price of oil being at a dramatic low level. One thing that doesn't get a whole lot of press play is the small and medium-sized enterprises that are currently suffering. Those small and medium-sized enterprises go the way of the oil. Right now they are not feeling that there's a whole lot of attention being paid to them and the issues they're facing.
I would ask you to avoid layering costs on top of businesses in Alberta. We are obviously feeling the effect of a low loonie, which affects input costs for most small and medium-sized enterprises.
We've recently had an increase in the corporate tax rate, going up by 2%. Again, that is only affecting large companies, some people would say. However, small and medium-sized enterprises in the province of Alberta are fed by larger corporations. If their corporate taxes increase, the amount of money that goes to small and medium-sized enterprises obviously decreases.
We're facing uncertainty as far as our minimum wage goes. As you probably know, we're going from $10.20 to $15 an hour by the year 2018, which adds a dramatic cost onto small and medium-sized enterprises. It doesn't affect only those who are paying at the minimum wage, but also those who are paying above minimum wage, because there's always pressure to increase.
As was pointed out by the previous presenter, we're also faced with increased municipal taxes, which is a cost that is burdened onto businesses in the province. We're also facing an increase in the carbon tax. Our province has had a long-standing carbon tax. It is going from $10 per tonne up to $30 per tonne within the next three years.
The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce put out a great press release yesterday. I would echo its words, that when it comes to what the Government of Canada is doing when it's drafting its budget, “Stop! Look both ways. Think before you tax.”
On the issue of infrastructure, we support targeted infrastructure stimulus spending. We've heard a lot of comments around the issue of being shovel-ready. I would ask you instead to be shovel smart. Look at what infrastructure spending would provide long-term economic impact. Target those areas of the country that require stimulus and help.
Rex Murphy said about six or seven years ago that, when the cod fishery collapsed, the government didn't build an LRT in Saskatoon. I would ask you again to target those areas of the country that need assistance, that need a little bit of a kick-start on their economies.
Obviously, coming from Alberta, I think the biggest infrastructure project that could go ahead and not affect or cost the Government of Canada any money is obviously the construction of pipelines, because that would put a tonne of money into the economy. We have no control over the price of gas and oil. That's a world commodity. But with access to markets other than the United States, we could maximize and receive full market value in the global marketplace. It would have a side benefit of probably reducing the cost of energy in eastern Canada, given the amount of oil and natural gas that's currently imported into Canada.
I would use this time period that we're going through with higher unemployment rates to take the time to fix our immigration system. We will rebound—in my lifetime I've seen this rodeo about four times—and when we rebound, we will need access on a timely basis to immigrants who can help us with the labour shortage that we're certain to see when we come out of this thing. Think it out and develop it right, so we don't have another program where the rules are changed every six months.
Our full submission is available on the website at abchamber.ca. We've also submitted a full copy. I believe the committee has received it. Again, I would sum up my presentation by saying, “Do no harm in this budget, please.”