The president of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce wants to bring up regional issues at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting in Sarnia this week.
Matt Marchand says he'll be discussing topics such as keeping duties and taxes low on international shipments to ensure Canadian retail businesses remain competitive.
"Taxes you pay on things you order online and right now the threshold is $20, anything above $20 you pay taxes on, and we'd like to keep it at $20. There's a movement afoot from the Canadian government to get that up," says Marchand.
The local chamber has had many successes over the years, such as getting support to defer the Trans-Pacific Partnership, closing the skills gap, and strengthening the Canadian steel industry.
Marchand says he'll address cap and trade.
"We're going to be dealing with things like cap and trade, which is a fancy name for a tax on carbon. We'd like to see that cap and trade be either deferred, suspended or mitigated," he says.
Marchand says he'll also touch on Canada's trade policy, particularly the $50-billion trade deficit with China.
"You've heard me talk about dumping of steel and other unfair trade practices going on globally. Were leaving a lot of money on the table in the trade space, about a billion a week, particularly with China and we'd like to see those numbers come back to zero," Marchand says.
