Thank you, that's an excellent question.
You're asking how we wrestle with the challenge of taxes that are paid on an imported good, of $18, versus taxes on a manufactured good, of $52.28. I think the biggest thing the committee has recognized is that manufacturing in this country is becoming very challenging, whether it be the increase in the Canadian dollar, whether it be the increase in commodity prices, or whether it be global competition.
Speaking specifically to global competition, China has a significant advantage in labour. We all understand that. But they have a significant disadvantage in skilled labour infrastructure as well as freight. The biggest advantage for the appliance industry is actually taxes, as you pointed out. There is an 11% total differential in costs, based on the tax burden.
The proposal we sent actually lists, on the second-last page of the presentation, an alternate tax method. It identifies a proposal that would reduce personal income taxes by 53%, corporate income taxes by 20%, and property taxes by 50%, eliminating entirely capital taxes as well as reducing payroll taxes by 8%. Those taxes can then be offset by increases in the provincial GST, the federal GST, and consumption taxes, which place more of a burden on the imported product. Currently the imported product contributes only 22% to the tax revenue of Canada, whereas manufacturing is contributing well over 80% of that tax burden.
This proposal would double the tax burden on the imported product to 43% of the tax revenue generated at all levels of government, and would decrease that gap, as you noted, between the $52 in taxes paid by a manufacturer and the $18 paid by an importer, by about 40%. That would bring us much closer to being able to compete. In fact it would allow us to export more tax-efficiently, and compete not just within Canada but globally.