Finance committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to speak this morning. For those of you who are visiting Alberta, welcome to Alberta. To those who are coming home and are from Alberta, welcome home. By way of introduction, my name is Ken Kobly, and I'm the president and C

Finance committee  Well, there aren't studies currently available to determine or support the $75,000 number we picked. We took a look at the intent of that threshold when it was originally introduced at $30,000 in order to eliminate and/or save on compliance issues, as well as the compliance costs

Finance committee  Definitely, if they are working as a subcontractor or as a self-employed individual.

Finance committee  Definitely, with a few exceptions, I think our corporate tax rates are competitive, especially in Alberta, because we have a very low corporate tax rate, particularly on small business. I think the importance of a competitive tax regime cannot be overstated. Capital can move, as

Finance committee  Perhaps Don might want to supplement this answer, but both of us have a background in public practice accounting. Certainly, anything that government can do to reduce the compliance burden, the interpretation difficulties with the act, and the simplification of the act would be w

Finance committee  As far as the actual cost involved to implement is concerned, we don't have those numbers. I would suggest that Finance could probably come up with a pretty good estimate, and we'd encourage them to take a look at it. The one that would cost the least amount to implement, in my

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, my name is Ken Kobly, and I'm the president and CEO of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce. With me today is Don Oszli, our past chair. Thank you to you, Mr. Chair, and to members of the committee for this opportunity to present to you our policy advocating the reintrod

Finance committee  In addition, we've tabled letters of support for our policy from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and Building Trades of Alberta, the organization that represents the unions that construct these projects. We also know you've heard from the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. As well,

Finance committee  Certainly we're starting to see signs that the employment rate is increasing. Areas such as Cold Lake right now are sitting at about 4.4% unemployment, where 3.9% could be considered full employment. Anecdotally, when you take a drive around certain parts of Alberta you're seeing

Finance committee  You bet. We believe there is no incremental cost, simply because the capital cost allowance that is currently allowed and is 25% would extend the time period the company would have to write off their asset. The accelerated capital cost allowance would mean that they would be able

Finance committee  When you look at it, certainly the production coming out of the oil sands is just fine. What we're looking at is expanding the production, perhaps bringing on new, better equipment that can increase productivity, that can also have a decrease in the effect of greenhouse gas emiss

Finance committee  I'm sorry, I didn't catch it.

Finance committee  Reintroducing it for the oil sands.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Due to the short notice we had that we were going to appear here, we were trying to get that information ready for the committee, and we will continue to pursue that, to get you the actual costs of what this deferral is. Again, it's a timing difference. It

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the committee members for inviting me this morning to present on behalf of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce. For those of you who don't know, the Alberta Chambers of Commerce is a voluntary federation of 126 community chambers in the province of A