I was speaking to a businessman just before I came into this room. His small business offers matching RRSP contributions to his employees. He says that he would have to cancel that if.... He proactively brought up the provincial Liberal proposal to increase payroll taxes on his company. He said that he would have to cancel matching RRSP contributions for his employees if they brought in this payroll tax increase on his company. Other businesses have told the CFIB that they would have to lay people off in order to mitigate the costs that such a payroll tax would impose upon them.
I know that yesterday the Liberal leader said that he supports “a mandatory expansion of the CPP of the type that Kathleen Wynne put forward in Ontario”. That plan would lead to a $1,000 tax increase for an individual earning only $60,000 a year and another $1,000 for the small business that employs that worker.
Higher taxes are not the solution. We prefer low-tax options, and that is exactly what we have provided.