BCCA is a Member of the BUSINESS COUNCIL OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, and we work in close partnership with this council on issues that impact all industries in BC (vs those issues that are uniquely important to construction): small business taxation is one of those issues. We are working together to create awareness of government actions that are resulting in increasing complexity, cost, and time for business. We believe the taxation changes are adding to uncertainty and eroding competitiveness in many industries through uncoordinated layering of more regulations, taxes and volume of change. Some of the recent budget activity can be found here:

• BCBC offers mixed reviews on Budget 2018
• Avoiding a deficit should be a BC NDP coalition budget priority (BIV)
• Budget’s higher business costs dim BC investment prospects
• Pros & Cons of NDP’s Housing Plan
• New age of activist governments driving up costs of doing business(BIV)
• BC Budget 2018 – Higher Business Taxes Plus Additional Spending Measures

In support of CCA’s efforts at the Federal level, BCCA provided the letter of support. Speculation Tax We are concerned that the “Speculation Tax” introduced in the February 2018 provincial budget will create uncertainty in the market and lead to a slowdown in construction on new developments: we continue to monitor the impact closely in partnership with other industry stakeholder organizations. This concern is heightened when taken into consideration with the other measures aimed at cooling BC’s real estate market, such as the increased foreign buyers tax (from 15% to 20% of fair market value), and the expansion of the geographic areas of the tax to include the CRD, Central Okanagan, Fraser Valley, and Nanaimo Regional District. Employer Payroll Health Tax The BC Government proposed the EHT in February 2018 budget, along with the elimination of the MSP premiums effective January 1 2020. BCCA is concerned that construction employers with payrolls of $500,000 annually or more are being unfairly burdened with yet another tax as a result of a transferring the cost of the health care system to their bottom line.