Finance and Government Services Committee

I have been appointed to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services which began operations last week.

The committee’s first order of business is consultations for the 2018 budget which will take place throughout British Columbia in early October. We have to submit our final report by no later that November 15, 2017, and there is no question that the consultation timeline is significantly accelerated due to the May election and the Budget Update recently released by the government.

Minister of Finance Carole James released this 2018 Budget Consultation document to stimulate the discussion from British Columbians about your priorities for next years budget. You are encouraged to provide government your feedback. More information about the dates and locations of the budget consultations will be available here in the near future.

Minister James attended the committee this afternoon and provided a brief update for the Members and following we had an opportunity to ask her a few questions.

One highlight she mentioned from the Budget Update 2017 was the reduction of the small business tax from 2.5% to 2%. I took the opportunity to ask Minister James about an issue about the small business tax raised to me by entrepreneurs from across the province. (See below.) More information to come on the Finance committee in the near future.

[rule style=”rule-dotted” ]

Hansard record of my exchange with Finance Minister Carole James.

“A. Olsen: Thank you for the report, Minister.

I just wanted to ask a question about the small business tax coming down to 2 percent. Would the government consider staging…? I think that’s below $500,000 or $400,000 or something. Once you get over that threshold, of course, it jumps pretty dramatically to 10 or 11 percent. One of the concerns that I have heard from small business is that, to a certain extent, this keeps business small. Any entrepreneur that I know loves the growth of a business.

How can we, perhaps, maybe stage that small business tax to encourage that business growth? So an entrepreneur can say…. Rather than maybe divest themselves or sell the business to somebody who wants to keep it small and start over again, grow it so we have small businesses turning into medium-sized businesses which have the opportunity to turn into big businesses.

Hon. C. James: Thank you for the question. I think you’ve identified a challenge that has been raised by businesses themselves around British Columbia and the investments we have in British Columbia. We don’t tend to jump to the next stage as often as other provinces do. We don’t see that same kind of investment. They get to a certain stage, and they leave for other jurisdictions.

It’s a piece that certainly needs to be looked at, and I appreciate the feedback. I’m sure we’ll hear, as well, through the task force on the emerging economy, that issue. I also expect we’ll hear some of that while we’re doing the public consultation as well.

This is exactly the time to raise those kinds of issues. We’re going through the process and preparing for the February budget, and it is the opportunity to be able to put those kinds of things on the table. So we’ll take it into account.”