FINA Committee Report

DISSENTING OPINION OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA

Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Finance present the following recommendations for Budget 2020 as a dissenting opinion.

That the government...

1. Legislates the “Pay-As-You-Go” principle, requiring that each dollar of new spending measures, be matched with a dollar of savings. This would require all new spending measures to come out of the existing fiscal framework.
2. Limit government spending increases to below inflation and population growth.
3. Implement a plan to balance the budget in five years.
4. Not introduce the interest deduction limitation rule proposed in the Liberal election policy platform.
5. Provide the same accelerated capital cost allowance regime to the energy sector, that the government has provided to the manufacturing sector. 
6. Expand the 15 percent federal Mineral Exploration Tax Credit to include all Canadian Exploration Expenses, Canadian Development Expenses, and the Canadian Renewable and Conservation Expenses that are flowed to individual investors under the flow-through share program.
7. Exempt spouses from the TOSI rules.
8. Eliminate the planned CPP hikes for small businesses across the country.
9. Eliminate any overlap, duplication and regulatory requirements for small business owners across the country, by creating a simple, comprehensive measure for red tape that goes beyond the current regulatory count and includes guidelines, policies, and legislation, while also broadening the scope of the Red Tape Reduction Act.
10. Approve the Teck Frontier Mine without conditions.
11. Repeal Bill C-69.
12. Repeal Bill C-48.
13. Adopt a “comply or explain” approach to recommendations of the External Advisory Committee on Regulatory Competitiveness (announced in the 2018 Federal Fall Economic Statement).
14. Implement a two-for-one rule requiring the elimination of two regulations for every new regulation.
15. Introduce fiscal tools such as a flow-through share instrument similar to the Canadian Exploration Expense to incentivize and facilitate capital investment for decommissioning inactive wells, facilities and pipelines.
16. Legislate economic growth and competiveness considerations into regulator mandates.
17. Streamlines the process for approving new construction permits in the aluminum industry.
18. Not move forward with the luxury tax proposal of 10% on automobiles, aircraft, and boats over $100,000.
19. Establish a capital gains exemption on the proceeds of an arms length sale of private shares or real estate. This exemption would apply to any portion of the proceeds that are donated to a registered charity within a predetermined timeframe of the completion of the sale.
20. Examine the use of flow through shares to raise market capital for green tech companies/start-ups and beyond the green tech sector.