Tax promise designed to create jobs: Selinger

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/09/2011 (5522 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A New Democratic Party pledge to raise the business tax threshold to $500,000 will take 3,000 small businesses off the provincial tax roll and will create jobs, NDP Leader Greg Selinger said Sunday in Brandon.

Selinger said the policy will ensure 15,500 businesses will pay no tax and can use that money to create more jobs.

“The small business tax in Manitoba, unlike anywhere else in this country, is zero,” Selinger said. “We have the largest tax-free zone in the country and we are going to expand that over our next mandate.”

Selinger said the threshold has already been raised from $200,000 in 1999 to $400,000 during the NDP’s government. In 1999, once the $200,000 business income threshold was reached, a nine per cent tax rate applied, he added.

“We want the Manitoba economy to expand and we want small business to be leading that expansion,” Selinger said.

The announcement was greeted warmly by one Brandon business owner.

“Raising the income limit allows me to hire more staff and do more for my valued customers,” said Albert’s Bistro owner Albert Kokonos, whose restaurant was the site of Selinger’s announcement.

Progressive Conservative Party Leader Hugh McFadyen said the promise does little for economic development, since the current business tax rate of 12 per cent that applies after the operation crosses the $500,000 income threshold is one of the highest in the country.

“Manitobans pay the highest taxes west of Quebec,” McFadyen said. “This makes little difference because Manitoba businesses have the most red tape to deal with of any other businesses in the country. The NDP got a grade of F from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses because of the red tape, and Mr. Selinger is in the process of raising hydro rates by 140 per cent that will cost jobs across the province. This is a campaign gimmick that does nothing to grow our economy.”

McFadyen added the payroll taxes paid by employers remains in place and there are other business-related taxes and fees that have been raised since 1999.

Saturday in Dauphin, Selinger pledged an MRI machine for the local hospital at a cost of $4 million.

“It will be a facility that serves the entire Parkland region and will allow some 1,400 trips that were made into the city at a half-million kilometres to be reduced because that services will be available closer to home.”

McFadyen said with 15 rural emergency room closures across Manitoba since 1999, the New Democratic Party’s rural health-care record doesn’t support the promises being made.

“Here we are, 23 days before an election with a desperate campaign promise in an area where they are in serious trouble politically, and in Dauphin particularly” McFadyen said. “The Dauphin hospital is dealing with serious problems and that health region as a whole is struggling. This is a desperate promise made 12 years after they promised to end hallway medicine.”

Attempts to reach the Manitoba Liberal Party for comment were not successful.

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com