#CorkTheTax Coalition bolstered by strong support of thousands of Canadians
TORONTO, June 22, 2017 /CNW/ - Beer Canada, Restaurants Canada, Spirits Canada and the Canadian Vintners Association are grateful for the overwhelming support they and their customers received from Canadians in response to the federal government's move to increase alcohol excise taxes every year in perpetuity.
"We launched corkthetax.ca to raise awareness about the impact of these ever-increasing taxes on a broad swath of small businesses and the pocket books of consumers," said Luke Harford, President of Beer Canada. "Canadians really responded."
"We are emboldened by the strong stand taken by the Senate of Canada to introduce amendments to address the undemocratic nature of the escalator clauses in the budget bill," said Joyce Reynolds, Restaurants Canada's Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs. "They quite rightfully called out the dangerous precedent of automatically increasing taxes without parliamentary oversight and scrutiny. We also salute Members of Parliament who understood the inequity of the escalator tax and spoke out for our industries on this issue."
"We, of course, are disappointed that the House of Commons chose not to repeal the escalator clauses as recommended by the Senate," said Dan Paszkowski, President and CEO of Vintners Canada. "But we haven't given up the fight. We will continue to engage Canadians and our industries to convince government to remove these undemocratic, automatic tax increases in next year's budget."
"We aren't going away," said Jan Westcott, President of Spirits Canada. "The cumulative impact of annual increases, with provincial mark-ups and sales taxes on top, will be too damaging to our industries, our businesses, employees and customers. Thousands of ordinary, hard-working, middle-class Canadians will be negatively impacted by these tax hikes. We remain open to working with Finance Minister Morneau and members from all parties to ensure our Canadian industries can continue to make our country's economy strong and innovative."
SOURCE Restaurants Canada
Luke Harford, Beer Canada, 613-697-2200, [email protected]; Joyce Reynolds, Restaurants Canada, (416) 649-4219, [email protected]; Jan Westcott, Spirits Canada, 416-707-8851, [email protected]; Dan Paszkowski, Canadian Vintners Association, 613-851-4076, [email protected]
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