Garnett Genuis, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan
“Payroll taxes hurt jobs because they make it more expensive to hire people, especially the young. Raising employment insurance costs will make this worse. I want the government to promise it will not raise payroll taxes.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to address the House on the subject of the unemployment crisis, and in particular to speak about the implications of EI premiums for employment. It is my view and the view of our party in general that payroll taxes are among the worst kinds of taxes. This is because payroll taxes create a greater cost and a disincentive around employment. While all kinds of taxes can have negative effects in terms of economic activity, payroll taxes are among the worst because they are not based on the profits that a company is earning or based on the overall income of an individual. They are targeted at employment specifically. When we have payroll taxes, the cost falls most heavily on those who are employing others. Let us imagine that we have two businesses of equal size and equal profit, but one is employing twice as many people as the other. The company that is employing more people will be on the hook for more payroll taxes. One of the key action items we are hearing from small businesses that will help them be part of the solution to youth unemployment is simply to reduce the cost of hiring. There was a great report done recently by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. It looked at how we can address youth unemployment and looked at some of the disconnect that has existed between employers and young people. The report highlighted that many small businesses say that a lot of the programs that are designed to promote, through programmatic or subsidy means, the hiring of youth can be complicated and difficult to use. They would like to see simple measures aimed at reducing the costs of hiring young people. One way the government can act to reduce the costs of hiring young people and reduce the costs of hiring in general is to address the relatively high payroll taxes that businesses and individuals have to pay on top of employment. In that context, therefore, Conservatives have been calling on the government to commit to not increasing EI premiums. Unfortunately, what we saw in the last budget, which goes to the question that I am following up on, were proposals for changes to EI that were associated with increases to premiums going forward. We pointed out and will continue to point out that increasing EI premiums creates the conditions in which it becomes even harder to employ young people and people of all ages. We will continue to highlight the negative impacts of payroll tax increases and encourage the government not to pursue policies that increase payroll taxes. I am here tonight to ask the parliamentary secretary again if the government is prepared to commit to not increasing payroll taxes and to addressing the implications of payroll taxes for unemployment.”
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to address the House on the subject of the unemployment crisis, and in particular to speak about the implications of EI premiums for employment. It is my view and the view of our party in general that payroll taxes are among the worst kinds of taxes. This is because payroll taxes create a greater cost and a disincentive around employment. While all kinds of taxes can have negative effects in terms of economic activity, payroll taxes are among the worst because they are not based on the profits that a company is earning or based on the overall income of an individual. They are targeted at employment specifically. When we have payroll taxes, the cost falls most heavily on those who are employing others. Let us imagine that we have two businesses of equal size and equal profit, but one is employing twice as many people as the other. The company that is employing more people will be on the hook for more payroll taxes. One of the key action items we are hearing from small businesses that will help them be part of the solution to youth unemployment is simply to reduce the cost of hiring. There was a great report done recently by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. It looked at how we can address youth unemployment and looked at some of the disconnect that has existed between employers and young people. The report highlighted that many small businesses say that a lot of the programs that are designed to promote, through programmatic or subsidy means, the hiring of youth can be complicated and difficult to use. They would like to see simple measures aimed at reducing the costs of hiring young people. One way the government can act to reduce the costs of hiring young people and reduce the costs of hiring in general is to address the relatively high payroll taxes that businesses and individuals have to pay on top of employment. In that context, therefore, Conservatives have been calling on the government to commit to not increasing EI premiums. Unfortunately, what we saw in the last budget, which goes to the question that I am following up on, were proposals for changes to EI that were associated with increases to premiums going forward. We pointed out and will continue to point out that increasing EI premiums creates the conditions in which it becomes even harder to employ young people and people of all ages. We will continue to highlight the negative impacts of payroll tax increases and encourage the government not to pursue policies that increase payroll taxes. I am here tonight to ask the parliamentary secretary again if the government is prepared to commit to not increasing payroll taxes and to addressing the implications of payroll taxes for unemployment.
