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Smith signs petition to stop the trades tax

Trades-Tax-petition

Eric Denouden, 1st Vice President of the Ontario Home Builders Association and
Brian Garrard, President of the Quinte Home Builders Association, with Todd Smith.

There is a movement afoot in Ontario to scrap the College of Trades and, on Thursday, Prince Edward-Hastings MPP Todd Smith added his name to it. Joined by representatives of the trades sector in the Quinte area, Smith put his signature on the Stop The Trades Tax Pledge at a gathering outside the Quinte Sports Centre.

“The trades tax that comes with the new College of Trades will make it more expensive for the average Ontarian to get a haircut, get their car serviced or buy a home,” Smith said. “And the College of Trades adds no value to these tradespeople. Tradespeople don’t want it. The Liberal government is planning to force Ontario tradespeople to pay membership fees, or a trades tax, to fund its newest bureaucracy, the Ontario College of Trades this spring. It is expected that employers will start paying the tax in 2014.”

“On behalf of tradespeople and businesses across Ontario, I want to thank Todd Smith for his support,” said Sean Reid, Chair of the Stop The Trades Tax Campaign. “The trades tax will drive good people out of the trades, by sticking tradespeople and employers with millions of dollars in new costs.”

The Stop The Trades Tax campaign was launched in 2011 and has grown to 31 organizations whose members represent more than 8,000 small, medium and large Ontario businesses and 130,000 skilled tradespeople across the province. The campaign is supported by tradespeople and business owners who fix cars and roads, cut hair, and build and renovate homes and hospitals.

“This government bureaucracy serves no other purpose than to feather the nests of a few special interests who got this government elected,” said Smith.

“As an association, we are glad to see that our local MPP and the PC Critic for Small Business, Todd Smith, has taken the position that the Ontario Home Builders Association has had for a number of years,” said Brian Garrard, Quinte Home Builders Association President. “Recently, the public has become aware that the College of Trades taxes – that are being applied to all trades contractors and home builders throughout the province – will have to be passed on to the consumers of renovations and new homes.”

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  1. Dennis Fox says:

    Based on this article alone, it sounds like Todd Smith is in the pocket of developers and builders and is using anything to get his name out there.

    If doctors, dentists, teachers, hair stylists and barbers have a college to regulate their “trade,” why not tradesmen?

    Let’s face it, the way it is now anyone can call themselves a contractor and get away with it – that is until your house falls apart, and even then there is very little a homeowner can do. Come on Todd, give your head a shake – don’t you watch Mike Holmes?

    Dennis Fox

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