Campaign Launched to Stop New McGuinty Trades Tax

Tax to Drive up Cost of Everything from Hair Cut to New Roof

TORONTO, July 26, 2012 /CNW/ - Thousands of tradespeople and employers from across Ontario have joined forces to launch a grassroots campaign to shut down the Ontario College of Trades, and stop an $84 million trades tax that will drive up costs for Ontarians for everything from a hair cut to a new roof.

"We're launching a campaign to stop a trades tax that impacts all Ontarians," said Sean Reid, Chair of the Ontario Construction Employers Coalition. "We believe the Ontario College of Trades will tax people out of the skilled trades, and drive up costs for consumers at every turn."

About the Campaign
The Members of the Ontario Construction Employers Coalition today launched the website www.stopthetradestax.ca, which will be the online home for the campaign. The site will provide Ontarians with information on the College, campaign updates, plus encourage Ontarians to write their MPP to call for the scrapping of the Ontario College of Trades.

"The College and its trades tax is slated to come into force on January 1st and this campaign is about educating Ontarians about what this costly exercise will mean to them," added Reid. "While we're concerned about the cost to construction workers, we also want to shine a spot light on the fact that this is a tax grab across all trades. Today it's hair stylist and electricians. Tomorrow it's bakers and horse groomers. The McGuinty government is regulating these tradespeople as never before."

For members of the Ontario Construction Employers Coalition, which employs more than 85,000 skilled tradespeople across Ontario, some of the top concerns include:

• No. 1, the $84 million tax grab in the form of membership fees for tradespeople and employers going towards creating a costly and unnecessary bureaucracy
• The inevitable push by the College to have more trades become compulsory, which will make these trades needlessly more difficult to work in, and drive up construction costs
• At a difficult time for the economy, the McGuinty government's insistence that it wants to create and build a bureaucracy to house the largest regulatory college in Ontario - home to 157 different trades. The Coalition believes this will be an expensive and unwieldy organization that will drive jobs and opportunities out of the province

How the Trades Tax Impacts Consumers
The Ontario College of Trades would move this province towards the Quebec construction model of stifling over-regulation, broad-based compulsory trade certification and high journeymen to apprentice ratios. Quebec economist Pierre Fortin estimates that the Quebec model results in a 10.5% increase in overall building costs and this translates into an annual tab of $3.4 billion and the loss of 52,000 jobs. Simply put, this means taxpayers will pay more for new schools, roads, homes and condos.

"Ontarians don't want to see a Quebec-style construction industry created here," said Reid. "We want to see innovation and job growth, not higher costs and crippling regulation."

About the Ontario Construction Employers Coalition
Members of the growing Ontario Construction Employers Coalition currently include:

• Conestoga Heavy Construction Association
• Durham Regional Heavy Contractors Association
• Grand Valley Construction Association
• Greater Toronto Sewer & Watermain Contractors Association
  Hamilton & District Heavy Construction Association
• HCAT - Heavy Construction Association of Toronto
  Heavy Construction Association of Regional Niagara
• Merit Openshop Contractors Association of Ontario
• OEL - Ontario Electrical League
• OGCA - Ontario General Contractors Association
• ORBA - Ontario Road Builders Association
• OSWCA - Ontario Sewer & Watermain Construction Association
• PCA - Progressive Contractors Association of Canada
• RESCON - Residential Construction Council of Ontario
• Sarnia Heavy Construction Association

SOURCE: Ontario Construction Employers Coalition

Danna O'Brien, Playbook Communications. [email protected]
416-500-0699

Sean Reid, Progressive Contractors Association of Canada and Coalition chair, [email protected]
289-335-1181