Feds delaying Maguire bill’s implementation

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This article was published 10/07/2021 (1729 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Westman MP’s private member’s bill on small business and farm inheritance appears to be stalling right at the finish line.

It has passed in both houses of Parliament and was set to receive royal assent until delays took hold.

 

Brandon-Souris Conservative MP Larry Maguire’s Bill C-208 adjusts how taxes are assessed on the transfer of small businesses, farms and fishing corporations between family members to bring them in line with taxes charged on selling those same entities to complete strangers.

Because of the minority Parliament, the Conservatives were able to garner the assistance of other opposition parties to get the bill through the House of Commons against the will of the governing Liberals.

Amendments to the bill were proposed but ultimately defeated in the Senate, passing third reading last month and getting royal assent to become law.

Despite becoming law, however, the federal government is delaying the bill’s implementation.

“Bill C-208 makes amendments to the Income Tax Act but does not include an application date,” a media release from the federal Department of Finance released June 30 states. “The federal government is committed to facilitating genuine intergenerational share transfers, while preventing tax avoidance that undermines the equity of Canada’s tax system. The government proposes to introduce legislation to clarify that these amendments would apply at the beginning of the next taxation year, starting on January 1, 2022.”

Speaking to the Sun on Thursday, Maguire said he didn’t buy into the excuse of the bill not having an implementation date.

“The rule is, if you don’t have an implementation date in it, it becomes law the moment it receives royal assent,” Maguire said. “Which was the night of June 29.”

In previous conversations with the Sun, Maguire has said he believes there will be a federal election this year. If the Liberals or another party other than the Conservatives were to prevail in an election before Maguire’s bill is implemented, it could mean the bill gets watered down, amended or even repealed.

“We can’t get any information out of the finance department to see what their intent is,” he said. “Other than to put a shot across the bow to people, warning that they may change it. We don’t know if they would go so far as to claw back the tax (break) that people would benefit from.”

Maguire’s colleagues in the Conservative caucus are backing up his complaints.

On Thursday, the Conservative Party of Canada sent out a media release saying the failure to implement Maguire’s bill proved that the Liberals are failing Canadian farm families.

“Instead of taking swift action to implement this important bill, the Liberals have taken the almost unprecedented step of ignoring Parliament and cancelling this bill,” Lianne Rood, Conservative Shadow Minister for Agriculture & Agri-Food was quoted as saying in the release.

“It is clear there is only one reason why the Liberal government is delaying the implementation of this bill – they want higher taxes for Canadian farm families and small businesses. This is shameful.”

In an open letter to the federal and Manitoba ministers of agriculture on Friday about the drought conditions in his riding, of which a copy was posted to Twitter, Selkirk-Interlake-Eastern MP James Bezan included a line calling the delayed implementation of Bill C-208 “undemocratic.”

Requests for comment from the Department of Finance on Thursday and Friday were not returned by Friday’s deadline.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

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