CGA-Canada Sends Open Letter to Prime Minister

October 29, 2007

In response to the federal government’s throne speech, CGA-Canada has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling for action to take down the barriers to interprovincial trade, and to get moving on its plan for broad-based tax relief.

“Our tax rates are not competitive and the tax burden on individuals and businesses is excessive. We can do better. And, with a $14 billion surplus, we can afford to do better.”

The letter, signed by CGA-Canada President Anthony Ariganello, CPA (Delaware), FCGA, states that: “We believe that, under its constitutional responsibility to establish an economic union without barriers to trade and to regulate interprovincial trade and commerce, the federal government should legislatively establish a set of open domestic trade principles and encourage the provinces to do the same.”

Ariganello goes on to propose that steps be taken to ensure that governments comply with the panel decisions, past and future, through an enhanced dispute resolution enforcement mechanism of the Agreement on Internal Trade.

On taxes, CGA-Canada calls on the government to:

• Appoint an independent panel to undertake a comprehensive review of Canada’s tax policy and taxation system;
• Lower personal and corporate income taxes to an internationally competitive level; and
• Make federal tax policy fairer, simpler and more responsive.

The letter has appeared as an ad in the two national newspapers and in today’s issue of the Hill Times, the independent newsweekly of Parliament Hill.