No new business tax, says Ontario MPP

By Brynna Leslie

As Ontario kicks off Small Business Week, a member of the Ontario legislature has introduced a Private Member’s bill seeking to eliminate what he calls a “tax” on business owners.

Progressive Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop says the Ontario College of Trades and Apprenticeships Act, 2009, created by the province’s Liberal government is penalizing small business owners. Mandatory membership in the college for many classes of trade has been widely-criticized since the College started mailing out invoices earlier this year.

“I urge the Liberals and NDP to support small businesses and immediately pass my private member’s bill to kill this latest business tax,” wrote Dunlop in a press release.

The implementation of the Ontario College of Trades and Apprentices Act which created the College, which will teach no courses and educate no tradespeople, is,  Dunlop says, just a “Liberal bureaucracy.”