A group of Saskatoon business people are getting ready to protest the small business tax changes proposed by the federal government.
Members of the North Saskatoon Business Association (NSBA) and other business owners plan to meet outside the Saskatoon Funeral Home on the corner of Fourth Avenue and 25th Street on Thursday at noon to send a message to the federal government to reconsider or at least expand the 75-day consultation period, which NSBA executive director Keith Moen calls “unrealistic.”
“The government is proposing this as being an attack on the wealthy, but it’s just not absolutely true. There are far more other mitigating factors and people and businesses that will be impacted by these changes,” he said. “It’s like using an RPG to kill a fly when a fly swatter would suffice.”
Moen says generally when it comes to small businesses, the person signing the cheques is often the last to get paid and is definitely not considered a member of Canada’s wealthy elite.
“This is the first thing (local business owners) talk about within our membership and in fact when we made the decision to hold this rally, the common response from our members was ‘It’s about time somebody is doing something like this, it’s about time people will have the opportunity to voice their concerns over this.’ ”
Moen said the effects of the proposed changes won’t stop with small business owners. When there is a set amount of money available within a business, any funds lost under the federal tax changes will force cuts to overhead costs — namely the employees, he said.
“It’s very, very rare that you see a business person or community of business people rallying and picketing,” he added. “So by virtue of that, we’re hopeful that this will send a strong message to the federal government in identifying that there is a problem here.”
