Blake Richards

[Taxation, December 5th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the amount of spin that comes from the government side of the House of Commons is truly dizzying.

How can the Liberals stand there and claim to support small businesses when all of the policies they put in place are designed specifically as an attack on those small businesses. I do not understand how they can do it with a straight face. They have added new payroll taxes. They have added a carbon tax. They have even labelled small business owners as wealthy, greedy tax cheats.

Small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy. They are the job creators. They are the community supporters in our communities. Yet the Liberals seem to be on this constant warpath against them.

I will ask the member opposite this. Why does the Liberal government keep going after the little guy?

[Taxation, December 5th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, in hindsight, small business owners, the hard-working, middle-class Canadians who just want to earn a living for their families and create jobs for our communities, should have seen this coming. I am talking about the coffee shop down the street, the person who cuts hair, and the mechanic who fixes cars. Instead of working hard running their local businesses, I guess they should have been keeping a closer eye on what the government was trying to sneak in, because the Liberal red flags were all there.

The Liberals had broken their promise to reduce the small business tax rate to nine per cent at that point, which they have now flip-flopped on so many times businesses are not quite sure where the actual rate stands. The Liberals had put in place new payroll taxes on small business by increasing CPP and EI premiums. Of course, do not forget the carbon tax on everything that will make the cost of doing business exponentially higher. They also cancelled the small business hiring credit. On top of all this, the Liberals are actually saying that some businesses are too small to be a small businesses. I know it sounds astounding, but it is a fact. That is what they are saying.

Active versus passive income rules, which the Liberal government issued a new interpretation of, adversely affect many small businesses, such as campgrounds, mini self-storages, and other small operations, by arbitrarily assigning them as passive income, when the amount of work involved is absolutely anything but passive.

If that was not enough, the finance minister then went after small business owners by labelling them greedy tax cheats to justify new tax changes to help cover some of the costly out-of-control Liberal deficits. What is worse, these changes were subject to an extremely short consultation period during the dog days of summer. These are changes that will make it harder for Canadians to find a family doctor and will make wait times longer; changes that will raise taxes on job creators and entrepreneurs, making it harder for people to find jobs; and changes that will make it harder for small businesses to save for a rainy day, retirement, or maternity leave.

Why are the Liberals so dead set on putting job-creating entrepreneurs out of business, and when will this attack on small businesses end?

[Petitions, November 24th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, today I bring forward a petition on behalf of thousands of hard-working Canadians who are concerned about the Liberal government's proposed changes to the tax plan and the use of private corporations proposal.

The petitioners call upon the government to completely abandon these proposed changes and to publicly commit to not raising taxes on dedicated small business owners who contribute economic value and growth to Canadians everywhere.

Small business owners work hard for their money and they should expect the government's support.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, November 24th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, the Liberals seem confused about how rules work. They seem to penalize those who follow them, and reward those who break them.

Recently a constituent lost her landed immigrant card and needed to travel within a few days. She contacted the government for a replacement card, but was told that it would take at least a month to replace it and that there was no way to expedite the process. Meanwhile, those who are illegally crossing the border into Canada are getting expedited work permits.

Why are the Liberals punishing those who follow the rules, and rewarding those who do not?

[Taxation, November 22nd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, more of the same bogus talking points I keep receiving over and over again, while what the member should probably do is go back to whoever wrote those talking points for her and let them know that actually, yes, it has changed. The reason we know that is because businesses are suddenly receiving huge new tax bills going back a number of tax years. She cannot stand here and say that things have not changed because those campground owners certainly are not going to believe that.

In terms of the consultations, in the last budget that we put out as the Conservative government, we did initiate consultations. Almost unanimously those consultations indicated there needed to be something fixed in this situation. Then the Liberal government came into power and in their first budget they cancelled those consultations without fixing the problem.

Now let us go back to those bogus talking points again because even the member's own colleagues do not believe those shameful excuses of talking points. The 2017 all-party pre-budget report from the Standing Committee on Finance recommended that rules that target small businesses for being too small should be changed. The recommendation reads, “That the Government of Canada recognize the income earned by campgrounds and storage facilities as 'active business income' for the purpose of determining eligibility for the small business deduction.”

Even the member's colleague, the Minister of Fisheries, knows the rules are unfair when he wrote to the Minister of National Revenue in June 2016 and asked that “the tax treatment of campgrounds be reviewed taking into account their specific circumstances”.

Is the member opposite really going to stand here and say that somehow it is fair to tax campgrounds out of business simply for being too small, while the rich Liberal cronies reap all the benefits of their tax evasion?

[Taxation, November 22nd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government was elected on a promise to grow the middle class and to help grow small business. Instead, Canadians have been left with massive deficits and ever-increasing debt, and a plan that only helps the government's rich Liberal cronies.

Once in office, the Liberals cancelled the planned small business tax reductions and EI tax reductions. They increased payroll taxes and introduced a federal carbon tax. They cut tax-free savings account contributions in half, ended the public transit tax credit, added a new tax on Uber, and raised taxes on beer, wine, and spirits. Then they tried to tax employee discounts and health and dental benefits. They have even raised taxes on Canadians with diabetes and disabilities. In short, Canadians have been bamboozled.

However, it does not stop there. The Liberals then dropped their hot mess of a tax planning proposal that would raise taxes on job creators and entrepreneurs, in a blatant attack on small business owners.

We have heard from the finance minister that hard-working Canadians have to pay their so-called fair share, while well-connected Liberals continue to protect their millions. As it turns out, the personal fortunes of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance are safe from these new tax proposals. They, along with their well-connected cronies, are not going to pay a cent more in taxes.

This is what the Liberals are trying to pass off as fair. I suppose this should not come as a surprise, as the Prime Minister infamously insulted hard-working small business owners during the election by saying that he knows “that a large percentage of small businesses are actually just ways for wealthier Canadians to save on their taxes...”.

On top of all of this, the Liberals have decided that the real problem, the real tax evaders, are hard-working small business owners, whose businesses are actually considered to be too small to be classified as small business. How does that make any sense? We are not talking about millionaire crony, Stephen Bronfman, the Prime Minister's personal friend and the Liberals' chief fundraiser, who was alleged in the paradise papers to be evading taxes. No, the Liberals are targeting small business owners for being too small. I wish I were exaggerating, because it sounds like a comedy of errors.

The Liberals claim they have not changed the active versus passive income rules, but they have issued a new interpretation of these rules that will adversely affect many small businesses, such as campgrounds, by arbitrarily assigning their income as passive income, when the amount of work involved is anything but passive. Many campgrounds and other small businesses are now receiving huge new tax bills, more than three times the rate of other small businesses, simply because they do not have five full-time, year-round employees to qualify for the small business tax rate. Again, the Liberals are trying to tell them that somehow they are too small to be a small business.

These tax bills will put many of these small businesses right out of business. A business that is considered too small should not be a reason to exclude anyone from this tax rate, especially when entrepreneurs are often a part of the daily operations of their small businesses.

Does the minister really have the gall to stand in this place while there is an ongoing investigation by the Ethics Commissioner and to call hard-working mom and pop shops, like campgrounds, tax evaders?

[Petitions, November 20th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to table a petition today.

In 2016, Airdrie residents Sarah and Lee Cormier told me the story of how they endured the heartbreaking tragedy of losing their four-month-old daughter Quinn to SIDS. The Cormiers' parental benefits were immediately cut and they were told that they had to pay back some of the benefits, only adding to the grief and stress.

On behalf of the Cormiers and other families in my constituency, such as Greg and Jaime Sawchuk who lost their son Vaughn, and thousands of other Canadian families that have lost an infant child, I table the petition calling upon Parliament to look for ways to better support parents dealing with pregnancy and infant loss.

[Housing, November 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, first, the Liberals made it more difficult for Canadians to qualify for a mortgage, and taking away the dream of home ownership from thousands of first-time buyers. Now they are tacking on even more costs, adding thousands of dollars in expenses when Canadians build, sell, or renovate their homes. As the Canadian Home Builders' Association said, when talking about $30,000, $40,000, or $50,000, our concern will always be about what this means for affordability.

Why are the Liberals making home ownership more expensive for middle-class Canadians, while owners of fancy French villas are let off the hook?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, November 3rd, 2017]

With regard to sponsored social media posts (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) by the government, including those put out by agencies, Crown Corporations, and other government entities, since November 4, 2015: (a) what amount has been spent on sponsored posts; (b) what is the description and purpose of each sponsored post; and (c) for each sponsored post, what are the details, including (i) date, (ii) analytic data, views and reach, (iii) details of demographics targeted?

[Housing, November 3rd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, imagine senior citizens who have worked hard their whole life and are ready to start the next chapter in retirement. Their kids have moved out, they are empty nesters, and they want to sell their houses and downsize. Now the Liberals want to make people pay more for that too. New building code requirements will require them to complete costly mandatory renovations when they sell their houses.

Why do the Liberals want to ruin the retirement plans of middle-class Canadian seniors?