How the federal budget impacts business in Lethbridge

It’s been a week since finance minister Bill Morneau rolled out the Liberal’s federal budget, enough time to understand what these changes will mean for Albertans.

The government’s first budget focused on key spending investments including increased money towards infrastructure, green energy and indigenous programming.

The Liberal government followed through on many of their campaign promises but fell short on reducing small business taxes.

“The Liberal promised that they would take the small business tax down from 11 per cent to 9 per cent, that was one of the promises they campaigned on. When the budget was rolled out we were really disappointed to see that they did not follow through on that commitment,” Lethbridge MP Rachael Harder said. “They’ve kept small business taxes, actually where it was and unfortunately, that will impact our small businesses here in Lethbridge, and in Canada.”

The Trudeau government had promised to drop taxes by 2 per cent, which may not seem like it would have a big impact but Harder says it can make a big differences for small businesses.

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“If that taxation amount was brought lower, down to 9 per cent, as was promised, it would mean that there was money freed up for local businesses,” Harder said. “To put into hiring another position, or innovation, or creativity as a business, which of course means job creation.”

Harder suggests that the best way to stimulate the economy is to provide local businesses with incentives for innovation and growth.

“If you really want this economy to grow, you have to be confident, and for every dollar in taxes that they pay, we may generate $5 in employment taxes,” said Harry Gross, first vice president of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce. “If you get businesses to slow down, we actually get everyone to slow down, because they’re the ones that generate the jobs that create the middle class.”

It still isn’t clear how the federal budget will impact local businesses in the future but increased spending on infrastructure may benefit Alberta.

“If those infrastructure dollars don’t directly come to Lethbridge, but to Edmonton or Calgary, we will still benefit, because it creates confidence in those communities which will protect us a lot too,” Gross said.

Details surrounding how infrastructure spending will be allocated will be clarified in the coming months.