Ottawa Conference and Event Centre
200 Coventry Road
October 8, 2014
Check against delivery
Good morning.
Welcome to the first in a series of cross country consultations with small and medium businesses.
These consultations are a demonstration of our Government’s commitment to support small and medium business by reducing red tape. Prime Minister Harper, a champion of the cause since creating the Red Tape Reduction Commission in 2011, calls it “the silent killer of jobs”.
Before I begin, I want to thank Hendrik Brakel from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and Corinne Pohlmann from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) for joining us this morning.
Both the Chamber of Commerce and the CFIB are strong voices for the small and medium business community, and have been strategic partners in working with our government to find effective and meaningful ways to cut red tape.
I thank the entrepreneurs among us this morning, and to those who will participate in consultations across the country, for your time and your engagement. Your small and medium-sized enterprises (or SMEs) are the backbone of Canada’s economy.
You create jobs and growth in communities across the country.
Thank you for bringing your honest opinions and your critical analysis to the conversation. In total, SMEs employ approximately 10 million Canadians, almost 90% percent of our workforce.1
We are determined to reduce red tape, so that you, the business owners, can focus on what you do best: growing your business, creating jobs, and stimulating economic growth in communities right across the country.
In January 2011, Prime Minister Harper established the Red Tape Reduction Commission to identify irritants to businesses that result from federal government rules and regulations.
After extensive consultations, the Commission issued a series of recommendations to many Government departments and agencies in January 2012.
The results were clear: the Canada Revenue Agency needed to improve our services so that Canadian businesses could more quickly and easily fulfill their tax obligations – saving time and money in the process.
Since then, our Government has been actively seeking results.
The CRA has taken action to address the feedback received from businesses during both the initial consultations from the Commission in 2011, and the targeted CRA-led consultations in 2012.
You told us that our online services needed to be improved.
They had to be more accessible and clear.
We took action with online service enhancements that ensure faster, cheaper, and more accurate filing than ever before. For example:
- Starting October 20, businesses can use My Business Account to manage their banking information online and sign up for pre-authorized debit services. This electronic self-service feature provides 24/7 control over registering, paying, filing, making changes, and looking at balances.
- All told, businesses can now complete 50 different kinds of transactions online with CRA. And our online mail service is faster and easier than managing paper correspondence.
You told us we needed to improve our correspondence: our communications needs to be simplified and clarified.
- We took action. We have conducted an extensive evaluation the personalized letters sent directly to taxpayers and tax preparers. We sent out 129 million such letters or notices in 2011-2012.
- The evaluation results will improve the quality of our correspondence. A plain language approach will ensure clear, concise, and consistent communications – an important part of the CRA’s ongoing commitment to reduce red tape and support taxpayers in complying.
You told us that you needed simplified reporting obligations, referencing that most thresholds were not current.
- We took action, revising the remittance thresholds for employer source deductions. This reduces the maximum number of payments that businesses are required to submit to the CRA. This will eliminate more than 800,000 payroll remittances for over 50,000 small and medium-sized employers.
- To help you remember what’s due and when, we have launched our first-ever mobile app. Our Business Tax Reminders app is targeted for SMEs, so you can create custom reminders and alerts for key CRA due dates related to instalment payments, returns, and remittances.
You told us that you needed better access to clear and accurate tax information.
- We took action: Last January, I announced the Liaison Officer Initiative pilot project. Through site visits and record checks, CRA officers will provide new entrepreneurs with in-person support and information at key points in your business cycle.
- This initiative will provide better support to businesses before a tax return is filed – Preventing errors that can be costly to correct after the fact.
- The Liaison Officer Initiative is still a pilot program, but the survey responses from 190 participants are overwhelmingly positive. Over 90% said the visit from a Liaison Officer helped them understand and clarify their tax matters.
Most importantly, you told us that you want to contribute to the evolution of our policies, programs, and administration as we improve the CRA’s services for businesses.
We’re taking action!
Today, I’m happy to launch CRA’s 2014 Red Tape Reduction consultations. We are committed to consulting with businesses every two years to ensure that our action plans continue to focus on your priorities.
Working closely with our colleagues from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Business, and their national reach, we have scheduled facilitated consultations and CRA-led roundtables with stakeholders across Canada this fall.
Through October and November, we are consulting businesses in 23 centres.
Those 23 consultations will be in: Kelowna, Delta, Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, North York, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Ottawa, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Montreal, Moncton, Halifax, Summerside, Charlottetown, St John’s, Whitehorse, Yellowknife, and Iqaluit.
But we have a big country, and many more business who want to be involved. That’s why we are also holding online consultations—open to the small and medium business community. Find out how to participate on the CRA website: cra-arc.gc.ca.
I want to thank you for being engaged in our red tape reduction efforts. I encourage you to be frank, as hope I have proven to you how ready and able our Government is to take quick action on your ideas.
Our Government is one of action. We continue to take action for Canadian families and for our economy. It’s why we cut the GST. Why we introduced Tax-Free Savings Accounts. Why we created the Universal Child Care Benefit. Why we established income-splitting for our pensioners.
These have been big wins for Canadians, and we must never allow anyone to take them away!
And as we move toward a balanced budget, it will allow us to continue delivering lower taxes for Canadians, as Minister Oliver just did on Employment Insurance premiums for small business!
We all share in our objective to reduce the red tape that you have to deal with every day, and we will keep delivering for small business, for families, and for our economy.
Thank you!
1Industry Canada – Key Small Business Statistics August 2013.
