Election 2008
Government Obstacles
Defence Procurement
Canada has a number of world-leading businesses engaged in the supply of private sector site support services to major facilities and deployed operations conducted by the Canadian government. These firms offer superior operations, maintenance and site support services in the mining, transportation, construction and military industrial sectors.
Current defence procurement policy generally ties the acquisition of equipment to the maintenance and support services required for the equipment throughout its service life. These maintenance and support service contracts often go to the foreign-based equipment supplier, relegating Canadian firms with the requisite experience to lesser roles as sub-contractors.
Recommendation:
- CCA recommends the federal government enhance its relationship with Canadian support services firms by building a true partnership with these firms and seeking new opportunities to increase their roles in government facilities maintenance.
Employment Insurance
Budget 2008 introduced some significant changes to the governance and management of the Employment Insurance Fund, which go a long way in addressing CCA’s concerns relative to the EI rate-setting process and the use of EI Fund surpluses. They, however, deal solely with governance and rate-setting, and not the operation of the EI program itself.
Recommendation:
CCA has called for additional reforms including the elimination of the employer multiple (i.e. a return to 50-50 employer-employee contributions), a mechanism for refunding employer over-contributions, and a yearly basic exemption.
TradeGateways
The Canadian economy is increasingly global in nature and reliant upon the strength of our exporters for domestic prosperity. To remain a strong and competitive global player, Canada must ensure that our domestic policies encourage business investment and promote the growth of exports.
Rightly, the federal government has focused significant resources on improving border crossings and access to the Asia-Pacific region, actions strongly supported by CCA members. The $2.1 billion announced in Budget 2007 for the development of Gateways and Borders was a welcome infusion of funds that is driving the development of the infrastructure Canada will require to ensure the speedy and efficient movement of goods domestically and around the world. While efforts on the west coast are far advanced, development plans for other regional gateways continue to lag.
Recommendation:
CCA members feel the country’s other regional gateways could strongly benefit from better private sector – public sector coordination and strongly encourages the creation of a National Gateways Council to better direct priority setting.
Export Distribution Centre Program
With the introduction of the Export Distribution Centre Program, Canada took a giant step toward the creation of Free Trade Zones. These zones have existed in many countries for decades, and generally, offer businesses operating within these zones the ability to import products tax-free, add value and then re-export them to third markets. The Canadian program offers many of these benefits, providing products are not manufactured or substantially altered within the EDCs.
While CCA applauds this government effort, we believe additional changes should be considered to expand the EDCP and make it more consistent with comparable programs available in other countries, including the United States.
Recommendation:
The CCA recommends that the federal government initiate a multi-stakeholder review of Canada’s Export Distribution Centre Program (EDCP) with Free/Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ) legislation around the world and consider adjustments to the EDCP in order to offer a strong global competitive position with which to attract international trade related investment.
top of the pageTransportation
Hours of Service
The introduction of national Hours of Service regulations was a laudable goal. Its broad application, however, has placed a sizable and unnecessary burden on the Canadian road building and heavy construction sector.
The federal Hours of Service regulations treat long-haul drivers the same as short-haul drivers, which is detrimental to construction operations. Short-haul drivers do not suffer the same effects of fatigue as long-haul drivers, and as such, should be exempt from the Hours of Service regulations.
Several provinces in Canada support this position and have moved to issue exemptions within their jurisdiction. However, without a federal exemption, those companies that operate in border communities are governed by federal legislation, which makes the Hours of Service regulations an unintended barrier to inter-provincial trade.
Recommendation:
- The CCA calls upon the federal government to issue an exemption for short-haul drivers from the Hours of Service regulations (e.g. those who operate within a 160 km radius or less within their working day).
Taxation
Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance for Diesel-Powered Vehicles and Heavy Machinery
Canada’s construction industry has been moving as quickly as possible to adopt cleaner vehicles and heavy equipment. However, given the costs involved with fleet and equipment upgrades, it is often not possible to embrace the newest and cleanest technologies immediately.
Recommendation:
To help improve industry adoption of the newest and cleanest technologies, CCA recommends the government restore the accelerated capital cost allowance from 30 percent to 50 percent.
Employer Provided Vehicles
CCA has long been seeking tax relief for construction employees using company motor vehicles (i.e. non-automobiles) to travel to and from home to construction work sites, particularly where the employee is required to take the vehicle home at night, is prohibited from using it for any non-business purpose, and is required as a condition of employment to report directly to different job sites that are often located much further than the employer’s head office or fixed place of business.
Recommendation:
The law should be reformed to recognize that there is no personal benefit to the employee and therefore no taxable benefit in the foregoing circumstances.