Madam Speaker, similar to the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, my question is also from October 4 of last year. It was regarding the controversial tax changes the finance minister proposed to bring in on corporations and small businesses. One might think that because that was last October, and the finance minister consulted with people and listened to people and then updated and made the final changes, this problem would have gone away and there would not be anything to talk about. However, that is not the case.
I used in my question an example of a family in my riding. Rita Felder is the CEO of a company called Field Farms Ltd. Basically, she immigrated to Canada and built up a company, with her entrepreneurial spirit, from nothing. She is in the business of selling organic grains, and she has grown that business. She sells now in multiple countries, has grown to employ 50 people, and has added buildings and equipment as time has gone on. Initially her concern was that she would not be able to pass on that farm and the company to her children, but I see that the finance minister made adjustments that would take care of that.
The other problem that has not yet been addressed is that when it comes to the money people accumulate in a corporation, the new proposal from the finance minister is going to allow the first $50,000 to be fine, but after that, the tax rate, depending on the type of use, will be between 40% and 73%. People in businesses that buy capital equipment do that with the money they have stored up in the corporation, so the unintended consequence of the tax changes that were implemented are that people who have corporations and are saving up this money every year are going to be paying a lot of it to the government and will be unable to afford to buy additional silos and pieces of equipment they need to expand their businesses.
I have a doctor in my riding who specializes in laser surgery, cataract surgery, and implants. He has done the same thing. He has built up a business. He has more than 20 employees, many of them family members, and he is doing very innovative high-technology, latest-edge procedures, and he needs expensive equipment. He uses the money he accumulates in his corporation to buy the equipment. Now he is going to expand his business. He is moving to a location that is going to take a few million dollars to set up.
I think the government needs to revisit what it has done on its tax changes. They are hurting small businesses, especially when it comes to businesses that are able to grow and be just the kind of businesses we want them to be. They are exporting and they are employing more people.
The Prime Minister, in his response, mentioned tax fairness and wealth. He said, “This...measure...goes after a system that encourages wealthy Canadians to use private corporations to pay lower tax rates than hard-working middle-class Canadians.”
Rita Felder said, “who are the wealthy Canadians the Prime Minister speaks of? Middle Class Canadians who run businesses need to incorporate savings for rainy days or future growth—yet the Prime Minister would seem to hold these savings for future investment over the businesses' heads—putting their future prosperity at risk.”