A large crowd showed up for a heated town hall meeting at City Hall on Friday night to discuss the government’s recently proposed tax reform.
James Braden, the owner of James Braden Ford Lincoln said small businesses are the backbone of Canada, employing more than 65 per cent of the workforce.
Braden said the negative effects of the proposed tax plans will be far greater than the benefits.
“It’s going to hurt gross domestic product growth. It’s going to hurt doctors. Millennials are going to see this as an unfair thing for them. They’re not going to have the same opportunities that we had,” said Braden.
The co-organizer of the event said it’s important to stand up for the middle class.
“But instead, this targeted taxation is tackling the middle class. We’re made to pay more. While rich Canadians do not,” said Debra Lefebvre.
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Many Kingstonians took to the podium to passionately share their concerns with MP Mark Gerretsen.
Gerretsen said it’s still very early in the process.
He said the initial consultation process is over on October 3rd but there’s a long road ahead before anything is finalized by the government.
“The premise here is not to make it difficult to, for example, transfer a business within the family, down a generation. And if there’s unintended consequences as a result of some of this legislation that they’re talking about then it’s necessary to make the changes. They (the government) believe that too,” said Gerretsen.
Some think talks of controlling so-called ‘income sprinkling’ and ‘passive investment income’ could hurt the Liberals come the next election.
“It will probably swing campaign donations a different direction. It will probably go to different parties,” said Braden.
Gerretsen said he will take feedback from the Kingston tax town hall to Ottawa.
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