Letter to the editor -
Dear Editor:
Predictably, the labour unions, spearheaded by the public sector unions, are all in favour of increasing payroll taxes on small businesses, yet again in the guise of avoiding poverty for future seniors. What the Canadian Labour Congress fails to understand in its claim is that this is a so-called "modest" increase in CPP premiums is that these increases will be on top of the planned significant hike in EI premiums for the next several years, minimum wage increases that took place right through a recession and continue to increase, and the province's workers' compensation premiums, which are the second highest in Canada. When does the piling on end? And as small firms are the most robust job creators in the economy, what implications do yet another payroll tax increase have for the economy overall?
Mr. Georgetti's letter also claims that a survey the unions conducted seems to contradict a CFIB survey on pension issues. As the union survey had 300 respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percentage points, and the CFIB survey had over 8,000 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point, it doesn't take a statistician to figure out which is the more accurate. Also, Mr. Georgetti uses the results of one question (regarding how many small firms offer pension plans) to dump on small business, while questioning the accuracy of another question (regarding how many small firms oppose CPP premium increases) on the same survey. You can't have it both ways, Mr. Georgetti.
The real question in all of this is why union leaders are protesting CFIB's very accurate representation of the small business owner on this issue. Has anyone noticed that it has been the public sector unions who have been extremely proactive in pushing for these CPP premium increases? They claim it is because they are concerned about people with lower having trouble saving for their retirements. But, perhaps their real hidden agenda is that if CPP premium increases are deemed to solve the "pension problem", attention will be taken away from one of the key issues - the tens of billions of dollars that are taxed away from private sector workers and business owners every year to be put towards the very generous, indexed pensions and early retirements that public sector workers enjoy and private sector workers can only dream about. If public sector unions really wanted to do something good for lower and middle income Canadians, they would moderate their persistent demands for more and leave some money back in private sector taxpayers' pockets, so they can save for their own retirements. If current trends continue, sooner or later we will become Greece, where bloated government and massive public sector entitlements have bankrupted the country. All we are asking for is fairness, which hardly seems like an outrageous request.
Most small firms cannot offer pension plans, in part because the current legislation and regulation is geared toward large corporations, but primarily because they simply don't have the money after paying the plethora of taxes imposed on them. There are many things that can be done to improve the pension environment for small businesses, but adding more gasoline to the fire is hardly a solution.
Catherine Swift
President and CEO
Canadian Federation of Independent Business
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