Stephen Harper will promise a financial boost for training and for employers, and also tax breaks for the tools tradespeople use.
The Conservative leader will make the announcement in Hamilton on Thursday, and the proposals will form part of the party's forthcoming election platform.
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Mr. Harper will promise to more than double — to $500 — the value of tools that can be claimed as tax-deductible each year, sources said.
Mr. Stairs would not offer further details. But other sources said the plan will include incentives for young people entering trade schools and for the businesses that hire them.
“The goal here is to get more people into the trades and to help those that are already in the trades get ahead,” Mr. Stairs said.
The Canadian Construction Association says it has spent years demanding better tax breaks for the purchase of tools, because the current $200 annual limit hasn't changed since 1976.
Skilled trades have unfairly suffered something of a stigma in recent years as somehow being less valuable than post-secondary education.
Far from it. A plumber or mechanic not only has more valuable skills than a peace and conflict studies grad, but also uses his brains more on the job than you think.
Tradesmen have to be good diagnosticians and problem-solvers and master ever-changing technologies quickly; that's more intellectually demanding than regurgitating back progressive propaganda in a liberal arts course.
I'd trust my plumber's common sense before I'd trust most liberal arts grads.
They deserve the tax breaks they're being promised.
Source: Globe and Mail
1 comment:
Why is it okay to subsidize tradesman and not daycare? I can't understand Harper's philosophy. He is so unprincipled.
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