Burnaby Board of Trade Champions Policies on Workforce, Climate, and Taxes to Support Business at BC Chamber Annual General Meeting

 

The Burnaby Board of Trade has advanced four policy positions which were adopted by delegates at the BC Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting this past weekend and will now become official provincial chamber policy and be advocated for with the provincial government on behalf of the entire provincial business community.

The policies focused on pertinent issues for Burnaby and BC businesses, including immigration and workforce development, environment and climate change, and tax policy.

These four policies are only a small part of the work the Burnaby Board of Trade does day after day to advance the interests of local businesses with all levels of government.  By achieving endorsement of our positions by the BC Chamber, our members now have the strength of the entire provincial chamber network behind them as we continue to push for changes for ‘making business better’ in Burnaby and across BC!

The four policies championed by the Burnaby Board of Trade this weekend were:

ENCOURAGE HIRING BY AMENDING THE EMPLOYER HEALTH TAX  (read)
The Employer Health Tax taxes every BC employer on their payroll, creating a tax on hiring and job creation in our province. The threshold above which payroll is charged the tax is currently set at $500,000, which is too low and should be raised to exempt more businesses from the tax and encourage hiring and wage growth as BC’s economy emerges from the pandemic.

ENSURING FLEXIBILITY IN THE BC PNP PROGRAM TO ALLOW EMPLOYEE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT  (read)
The BC PNP program is an immigration system that allows skilled and semi-skilled workers to gain permanent residency in BC.  The government should increase flexibility in “Skills Immigration” stream to allow employers to promote and advance workers without jeopardizing their immigration process.

ENACT THE EMERGING ECONOMY TASK FORCE’S FINE RECOMMENDATIONS ON LEVERAGING B.C.’S GREEN ECONOMY  (read)
The global market for low-carbon services and solutions is estimated to be $6 trillion and growing and we need to ensure BC is well-positioned to seize a significant share of that market due to our existing strengths such as our low-carbon energy grid, our world-leading post-secondary education landscape, our diverse population and workforce, and our growing knowledge-based and highly-skilled economy.

RENEW THE COVID PROPERTY TAX CUT AND EMPLOYER HEALTH TAX DEFERRALS  (read)
As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, the provincial government can further support the BC business community by renewing two tax cuts and deferrals it introduced last year, specifically reducing property taxes via the school tax, and deferring the due dates of the employer health tax.