Mr. Speaker, lower income Canadian students and labour intensive industries are pleading with the Liberal government to stop targeting them with crippling payroll taxes.
The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association has made a recommendation to the human resources committee to establish a $3,000 yearly basic exemption in the employment insurance program as a cost effective way to reduce the payroll tax burden on labour intensive industries such as food service, retail and tourism.
Financially it would help lower income workers and expand job opportunities for entry level workers. In these times of economic uncertainty the need for targeted payroll tax relief has never been greater.
The finance minister has forgotten his new framework for economic policy statement of October 1994 in which he stated:
We believe there is nothing more ludicrous than a tax on hiring, but that is what payroll taxes are. They have grown dramatically over time. They affect lower wage earners much more than those at the high end.
I concur with the finance minister. It is time for him to heed his own words and introduce payroll tax relief immediately. A fall budget would be a perfect opportunity for him to do so.