LIBERALS and NDP Vote Again to Tax Tradespeople in Sarnia-Lambton

QUEEN’S PARK — On Wednesday, Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey and his colleagues in the Ontario PC Caucus voted to scrap the Liberal Government’s new College of Trades and its pricey new tax on tradespeople. Unfortunately the Liberal and NDP members of the Legislative Assembly teamed up and used their majority of votes to make sure the expensive new College of Trades will continue to be able to tax both the mandatory and voluntary trades in Ontario.

Starting this spring, mandatory trades and their employers in Ontario are required to pay an annual fee to the College of Trades. Most trades have seen these fees increase from $20 annually to more than $120. In addition, soon the College of Trades will begin applying the same annual fees to the hundreds of voluntary trades in the province. Together, this money grab is expected to generate $84 million for the College of Trades to help staff its bureaucratic offices in Toronto. Already, the unnecessary College has added 75 employees to its payroll.

“I am very disappointed that the Liberals and NDP continue to support this new tax on tradespeople in the Sarnia-Lambton community,” commented MPP Bailey after the vote. “The reality is that the overwhelming majority of tradespeople in Ontario are against the College, including strong opposition locally from the Sarnia Construction Association, this new tax will do nothing but grow the size of government and increase barriers to work.”

“No one has yet been able to explain how this new bureaucracy will help meet the demand for skilled trades in Ontario, or how it will help grow jobs and investment in the province. By siding with the government yet again, the NDP have completely abandoned the skilled men and women working in the trades in Sarnia-Lambton to help make life a little easier for Toronto bureaucrats,” added MPP Bailey.

Across the province more than 500,000 people earn a living in the skilled trades. 150,000 people work in the 22 mandatory trades that are now being taxed, with another 350, 000 working in the 135 soon to be taxed voluntary trades.

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