New Trades Tax to be Introduced in Ontario in 2013
 Print this Article | Send to Colleague
Members of the Ontario Construction Employers Coalition employ more than 100,000 skilled tradespeople across Ontario. This is part of a grassroots campaign to urge the Ontario government to shut down the Ontario College of Trades.
Why the College of Trades must be abolished
If the newly created Ontario College of Trades has its way, it will hammer hardworking tradespeople with membership fees that will add up to $84 million a year. It’s a huge tax grab, with no clear benefit and no accountability.
Despite what the college says this is not a membership fee. With a membership people have a choice. This tax isn’t a choice. If tradepeople want to continue to do the job they love, and put food on the table at home, they have to pay this tax. In fact, many already pay for licenses and countless other fees to government. This would be millions of added costs forced on tradespeople to support a new government bureaucracy with no benefit to Ontario tradespeople or the economy.
 How this affects you
- Each apprentice, journeyperson and employer would have to pay hundreds of dollars in new annual fees
- Compulsory certification of trades such as painting, drywalling and carpentry means despite years of experience, many will be forced into the classroom
- New restrictive apprenticeship ratios could force layoffs
- What do auto mechanics and hairdressers have in common?
- They are both about to get hit with a new trades tax by the McGuinty government.
- If you are an auto mechanic or hairdresser, you are among the 22 compulsory trades that will be hit first by a new trades tax. It is going to be collected to pay for the McGuinty government’s latest creation, the Ontario College of Trades. That means starting January 1st you’ll be forced to pay a new annual tax up to $200 on top of the fees, tools of your trade and courses you’re already paying for.
Top 10 Reasons the College and tax should be abolished:
- Ontario’s tradespeople don’t want it. When consulted about membership in the College, a whopping 88% of tradespeople and employers said they’re against it.
- The College is lousy at math. It’s planning to hammer tradespeople and employers with an $84 million trades tax. And that’s a conservative estimate. The College disputes the figure, yet their own website says it will cover 500,000 tradespeople at the proposed fee levels, making $84 million a very real figure. And it’s hardworking tradespeople who will have to foot this bill.
- It makes no sense. The College wants to lump 157 different trades, from construction to service trades, under one regulatory body. You tell us what meat cutters, welders, horse groomers and hot tub installers have in common?
- The death of the handyman. The College is fixing it so that your favorite local handyman won’t be able to build a deck, install new floor tiles and paint your kitchen. If the College gets its way, these jobs will all have to be performed by different compulsory trades. That means a different tradesperson would need to perform each job. Goodbye jack of all trades.
- The end of student construction jobs. The College wants to force more trades to become compulsory, which come with restrictive journeyperson/apprenticeship ratios. Getting summer jobs in construction will become much more difficult for students.
- Ontario is following in Quebec’s footsteps. The College wants to regulate more trades, creating a system like Quebec’s heavily regulated construction industry. Just read the headlines and you’ll know how poorly that’s working out for Quebec.
- Taxpayers and the economy will take the hit. By going down the path of the Quebec model, projects will cost more and the economy will suffer. A study on the impact of this model in Quebec found that projects cost an extra 10.5% to complete, and represented a loss for the Quebec economy of $3.4 billion and 52,000 jobs.
- Forcing small business tradespeople out of work. Ontario has thousands of small business people in the trades. Forcing trades like painting to become compulsory, means years of experience won’t count. Painters will have to go to school to certified, or shut down their business. What a choice!
- No transparency or accountability. Many trades already pay for licenses and countless other fees to government. We’re still waiting for the College to explain the benefit of $84 million in membership fees.
- The cost of home renovation becomes a costly nightmare. Imagine the cost of a kitchen renovation, when you have to hire one trade for painting, one for drywall, one for cabinet making, another for tiling, etc... Costs will balloon.
For More information, visit:
www.stopthetradestax.ca
|
|
