Legislative Proposal, Bill or Resolution

• Bill C-12, an Act to Amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Parts of this bill must be re-worded to make it clearer around the meaning of consent
• COMPETITION – Express concerns regarding statements in the 2014 Budget announcement, indicating proposed legislation to empower the Competition Commissioner to investigate incidents of Canada-US price discrimination. The concerns are around the negative effects of market interventions.
• FORMER BILL C-28, AN ACT TO PROMOTE THE EFFICIENCY AND ADAPTABILITY OF THE CANADIAN ECONOMY BY REGULATING CERTAIN ACTIVITIES THAT DISCOURAGE RELIANCE ON ELECTRONIC MEANS OF CARRYING OUT COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES, AND TO AMEND THE CANADIAN RADIO-TELEVISION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION ACT, THE COMPETITION ACT, THE PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION AND ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS ACT AND THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT. WORKING TO ENSURE THIS LEGISLATION DOES NOT PLACE UNNECESSARY BURDENS ON CANADIAN BUSINESSES.
• Intellectual Property Rights - Strengthened legislation to better protect Intellectual Property Rights. Make counterfeiting and piracy criminal offences under the Criminal Code; Trademark counterfeiting a specific criminal offence under the Trade-Marks Act; and impose stronger penalties for counterfeiting and piracy that endangers the health and safety of Canadians. Investigate the possibility of a Canadian form of a patent or innovation box to enhance the development and commercialization of intellectual property, including patents. Express concern regarding proposed changes to declaration of use in the Trademark Act in bill C-31 (Budget Implementation Act).
• New legislation with respect to providing First Nations with the option to opt out of the Indian Act’s land tenure provisions and assume underlying ownership of their reserves.
• PRIVACY – express concerns regarding provisions of bill S-4 (changes to PIPEDA) to ensure business has clear compliance objectives.

Policies or Program

• BORDER CROSSINGS - Beyond the Borders Initiative, with respect to implementation of the action plan items.
• BORDER CROSSINGS - with respect to the development of a new International Crossing between Windsor and Detroit.
• Digital Economy Strategy - Looking for more of an emphasis placed on the digital economy by the government
• EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE Reform - standardize eligibility requirements and benefit duration across Canada, remove social program aspects of EI from the regular premium structure, reduce employer EI premium rate to equal that paid by employees, and refund employer over-contributions - Taxation and Finance
• ENERGY – Support for options to diversify Canada’s trade in energy products as well as for required infrastructure; support for the adoption of a Canadian Energy Framework
• ENVIRONMENT – Harmonization of regulations with provinces, ballast water regulations
• Economic Development - With regard to the measures the federal government needs to take to encourage private sector generated economic development in Canada’s territories and all remote communities.
• Economic Development - with regard to the development of the services sector both domestically and internationally.
• Employment Insurance - Employer premiums for, and scope of the Employment Insurance Program
• Employment/Training - Skills development and training programs with regard to ensuring Canada's workforce has the skills to meet employers' needs. Policies and/or incentives to encourage older workers to remain in the work force and improving education/workforce outcomes for Aboriginal peoples, youth and persons with disabilities.
• Employment/Training - Temporary Foreign Worker Program changes to labour market opinion criteria and to the application process.
• FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS - Promote balanced free trade agreements for Canada with Europe, India Japan and Korea. Promote Canada's participation in the Trans-Pacific partnership and in the Trade in Services Agreement
• IMMIGRATION - Expedited application process with regard to giving priority to applicants who possess skills in short supply in Canada and processing their applications within 6-12 months.
• IMMIGRATION - Foreign Credentials Recognition Program with regard to working with the provinces/territories and business community to develop national accreditation standards to evaluate foreign credentials, professional and trade qualifications, and certification in regulated and non-regulated occupations that reflect employers' needs
• IMMIGRATION: Changes intended to attract and retain international students with respect to work permits, applications for permanent residency, and processing times for applications.
• IMMIGRATION: Changes to increase the number of economic immigrants to this country to double the current rate. Renegotiation and signing of new memoranda of understanding with each of the provinces and territories to increase provincial caps for Provincial Nominee Programs. Adequate staffing of local Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices to meet demand and alleviate the labour market shortages.
• IMMIGRATION: Regional strategy for settlement needs and at levels of service to ensure access to skilled workers in all regions of the country.
• INNOVATION - Stimulate R&D in the pharmaceutical industry by extending data protection and implementing a five-year patent restoration system. Improving the SR&ED tax credit program to drive innovation. Pushing the government to continue to encourage small and medium sized businesses to do more online. Investigate the possibility of a preferential corporate tax regime for profits arising from patents/innovation to encourage companies to base their R&D activities in Canada and to commercialize them in Canada.
• INTERNAL TRADE - removing interprovincial barriers to trade, investment, and labour mobility within Canada
• Infrastructure: In regard to the development of a national infrastructure plan, priority infrastructure projects, border infrastructure, public private partnerships, funding models and government consultations.
• International Trade: Expanding trade and investment links with developing countries.
• Labour: Ensuring that any changes to the Canada Labour Code are implemented only if they address a real problem or result in improvement for these employers, their employee and/or the Canadians they serve.
• Labour: Asking the federal government, specifically the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, to work with the Canadian private sector to identify ways to increase long-term formal employment opportunities for the poor in developing countries, and facilitate the availability of financial institutional products and services, including microfinance, to stimulate job creation for the poor
• Mining – With regard to taking a proactive approach to promoting Canadian mining internationally, specifically through taking a leadership role in promoting the sector abroad and helping to create a brand of excellence in responsible business conduct, including government resources being available to work with Canadian firms seeking to implement ethical standards when operating in foreign jurisdictions
• Natural Resources: support for the adoption of policy recommendations to strengthen Canada’s world-leading position in the mining industry
• Pensions: With regard to providing additional retirement savings options to Canadians that do not impose additional costs and/or administrative burdens on employers.
• Responsible Business Conduct - with respect to federal oversight of businesses' behaviour internationally
• SMALL BUSINESS - Reducing red tape and the compliance burden and encouraging effective fiscal and economic policy measures to improve the business climate for SMEs.
• SPENDING CONTROL - Clarify the respective roles of federal and provincial/territorial governments in the areas of health care, social services, post-secondary education, social assistance and training. Limit growth in program spending to an average of 1.5 per cent per year through 2015-16. Continue to examine new ways to reduce costs, modernize how government works and ensure value for taxpayers’ money, including in the areas of service delivery, corporate asset management, travel and administrative systems.
• SPENDING CONTROL - Continue to review all direct program spending and operating costs on a four-year cycle to determine where the payoffs are the greatest, and identify areas where spending can be reduced or eliminated Taxation and Finance
• SR&ED tax credit program – Reduction of Changes to the SR&ED Investment TaxcCredit rate program announced in Budget 2012 will be very problematic for many Chamber membersdiscriminate on the basis of company size and favour labour intensive R&D projects over capital intensive R&D and labour intensive industries over capital intensive sectors. Lobbying Asking the government to review assess the economic impact that these proposed of these changes would have on innovative companies in Canada. in terms of retaining high quality jobs in Canada and incenting foreign companies to set-up in Canada, as well on the competitiveness of research-intensive sectors.
• TAX/DEBT REDUCTION - Ensure the federal debt-to-Gross Domestic Product target falls to below 30% by 2015 - Federal Budget Taxation and Finance
• TAX/DEBT REDUCTION - Reduce personal income tax rates across all income tax brackets and make improvements to Capital Cost Allowance rates - Taxation and Finance
• TRANSPORTATION POLICY in regards to the development of a National Transportation Strategy and a National Infrastructure Plan
• TRANSPORTATION POLICY in regards to the development of a competitive and efficient transportation network including all modes of transportation
• Taxation and Finance - Clarify the respective roles of federal and provincial/territorial governments in the areas of health care, social services, post-secondary education, social assistance and training
• Taxation and Finance - Ensure that Canada’s tax system is as neutral, simple, efficient and fair as possible; avoid ad hoc changes to tax legislation, like the constant addition of special provisions and targeted tax benefits; appoint an advisory panel to identify ways to reduce the complexity of Canada’s tax system; rely more on consumption-based taxes, like the GST/HST
• Taxation and Finance - Investigate the possibility of a Canadian form of a patent or innovation box tailored to provide a preferential corporate tax regime for profits arising from patents/innovation
• Telecommunications. The Canadian Chamber advocates that future telecommunications policies should be focused on creating the right investment incentives that will foster vibrant competition in the sector as a whole and not favour only certain companies.

Regulation

• CLIMATE CHANGE - international negotiations, Clean Energy Dialogue with US"