Advocacy

Advocacy on behalf of the business community is the key role of the Chamber of Commerce. Our Chamber has formed several committees that meet to regularly review information and to develop recommendations on government regulations and taxation as they pertain to the community's ability to attract and retain business and as they affect the interests of Chamber members. If you are dealing with issues that affect your business, we would like to hear from you.

Business Education Tax Update

The Smiths Falls & District Chamber of Commerce has been advocating for a reduction in the Business Education tax rates for several years now. The Business Education Tax rates were established by individual school boards prior to 1997 based on their taxation revenue requirements. Of course, every school board had different revenue needs and thus the difference in tax rates. In 1998, the Province of Ontario took away the ability of individual school boards to raise the necessary taxes to balance their budgets, and began the process of raising the taxes themselves. However, rather than equalize the business education taxes when it made the most sense to do so, the Province continued on with the disproportionate rates that had previously been established by the School Boards. This meant that businesses all across the province were paying different education tax rates, even though every student across the province was getting the same quality of education.

So the question becomes, "Why should a business in Smiths Falls pay more to educate a student at one of our local schools than a business in a neighbouring community who pays less tax to educate their students? How many dollars have the businesses in Smiths Falls already paid in excess of what other businesses in the province pay? Why should businesses in Smiths Falls be penalized, for surely, what else can we call this unfair treatment by the Provincial Government?

Our Chamber partnered with the Toronto Board of Trade in 2005 to present the first OCC resolution aimed at pressuring the province to reduce the BET. As a result, the government did phase a reduction. The question that remains, however, was why should Smiths Falls businesses have to wait another several years for this problem to be fixed?

The Smiths Falls and District Chamber of Commerce and the Toronto Board of Trade have once again joined forces with the OCC to present a resolution that will help rectify the BET issue. We will also be impressing upon the Ontario government that the BET reduction would be an ideal "Shovel Ready" initiative as they continue to look for places to invest their economic recovery dollars.

We welcome your thoughts and input! Follow this link to see the entire 2009 BET Resolution.

2009 BET Resolution (80 KB PDF)

Following are advocacy documents from our office and from our valued partners.

Overtaxing Peter to Subsidize Paul (1 MB PDF)
Business Property Tax Unfairness in Ontario
By the Canadian Federation of Independent Business