There was a lot on the plate for Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve McLellan while in North Battleford on Thursday night of last week.
McLellan was in the community to speak at an event put on by the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce in recognition of Small Business Week.
But an issue on the minds of everyone during the week, including McLellan, was the announcement by the federal Liberal government that they were rolling back on a number of their proposed tax changes impacting small business.
In a sit-down with media prior to Thursday’s event at Gold Eagle Casino, McLellan acknowledged the tax issue had been a huge one for business across the country.
“Certainly the federal Liberal proposals around taxation changes were a big deal,” said McLellan.
While McLellan welcomed some of the changes announced earlier that week, in particular the announcement that the small business tax would be reduced to nine per cent, he did not have much good to say about the process leading to this point.
“There’s still concern across the country, there’s no question,” said McLellan.
“The process was horrendous. They’ve made it harder on the business community and harder on them as the federal government than they needed to be.”
McLellan pointed out that federal finance minister Bill Morneau had taken a “reputational beating” on the issue.
“The way that he’s seen now across the country is I don’t think reflective of the history or the career of the man. But at the end of the day the process damaged the business community. It took us off the more important issues of adding to Canadian prosperity. And for the last three months and the next probably two or three, we’ll still be focused on these changes instead of much more productive elements.”
With respect to the latest changes announced by the government, McLellan said the first step would simply be to understand what the changes were and their impact.
“Now it’s a matter of clarity on what they’ve proposed,” he said. “What we’re suggesting throughout is that the federal government needs to, instead of continually adding Band-Aids to the Tax Act, they need to open it up and get real clear concise objectives and some people around the table who can come forward with recommendations to make taxes fair.”
In the long term, he said, the Chamber network across Canada is calling for a full review or possibly even a royal commission on the issues around taxation.
“It’s not that business people have a problem paying taxes, we want to pay fair taxes. We want to pay through a system that is transparent and once that transparency’s available to us we can understand what those taxes are.”
McLellan says the Chamber also wants a renewed relationship between the business community and the federal government “that is built upon respect, transparency, clear objectives that we would share,” among others.
The provincial chamber CEO had further thoughts on other pressing issues, including the leadership races going on in both the Sask Party and the NDP.
“It’s a dynamic time in Saskatchewan politics,” said McLellan. The Saskatchewan Chamber is also looking carefully at the policies being presented by both parties, because “one of them is going to be the next premier. One of them is going to be the next Opposition leader.”
The proposals floated include calls by some Sask Party leadership hopefuls to reverse the decision to remove the PST exemption on insurance, in response to feedback they had received.
McLellan believes that reversal would be a good move and hopes it is a sign the new premier will have a more inclusive process for bringing down the budget next time.
“We think there were decisions there that could have been done differently,” said McLellan. “It’s the process by which those decisions were made that could be improved upon.”
McLellan will also be watching closely the upcoming budget deliberations of cities around the province, which he says has a direct impact on business.
“Municipal taxes are a huge issue and it’s much closer to the front of mind for many businesses because that’s a bill that they see and perhaps understand much more than perhaps others,” said McLellan.
The other issue the Saskatchewan Chamber is watching are the ongoing NAFTA negotiations. Despite the talk that President Donald Trump might pull out of the deal, McLellan ultimately believes a deal with get done.
“I think the US lobby to keep the US in is too significant to allow them to move out,” said McLellan. “And with all due respect to the President’s Twitter commentary about NAFTA, it’s too big a deal for the US to walk away from.”
He also believes that even if it did end, Canada and the USA would soon have a bilateral agreement in place.
As for the event in North Battleford on Thursday evening, McLellan welcomed the opportunity to speak to those at the Battlefords Chamber event.
“We’re coming to believe the Battlefords are perhaps the most unique and progressive chamber in the province,” said McLellan.
The event at Gold Eagle Casino was particularly aimed at potential new members who are not active in the chamber at the moment. Several from the local business community who aren’t currently chamber members were invited to take part and hear what McLellan and other speakers had to say.
McLellan saw the night as an opportunity to not only share what the chamber network could do for businesses that are not currently involved, but also what business could do for the chamber network and the broader business community.
In particular, he saw an opportunity for the Battlefords chamber to do an even better job representing businesses by including more members who could provide more input.
“We say that our mandate is to make Saskatchewan a better place to live, work and invest,” said McLellan. “And the Battlefords Chamber is no different than that. The better they get in terms of representation of the entire business community, the better they can represent this entire business community and make it a better place to live, work and invest.”
Warren Williams, president of the Battlefords Chamber, concurred.
“We think we can help them in their business; we think they can help us. It’s exactly a two-way street,” said Williams.
Williams pointed to the rich history and track record of the chamber, but also welcomed the opportunity to share with businesses the various initiatives that the Battlefords chamber is involved in.
“I get questioned on the streets lots about ‘what do you guys do?’ We’re going to have those questions answered tonight,” he said.
As for McLellan, he looked forward to another big event that ended up taking place on the weekend in Saskatoon: the provincial ABEX awards put on by the Saskatchewan chamber to celebrate outstanding achievements in business in the province.
Gold Eagle Casino had been the lone North Battleford ABEX nominee, nominated in the marketing category. But in the end Diamonds of Detroit out of Humboldt took the ABEX award in that category.
