Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

B.C. finance committee calls for tax review in 2020 budget report

leg
(via Glacier Media)

An all-party British Columbia legislature committee says the province's tax system is in need of a comprehensive review.

The seven-member Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services says in a report used to help guide government preparations ahead of its next budget that the tax system needs to be modernized.

The committee's report is unanimous and recommends reviews of the province's carbon tax, employer health tax, luxury tax, speculation and vacancy tax and provincial sales tax.

The committee made more than 100 recommendations to government, including that it provide supports for youth formerly in care and that it helps workers and communities as the forest industry experiences an economic downturn.

The committee, made up of four New Democrats and three Opposition Liberals, held meetings in 15 B.C. communities in June and received almost 1,000 written submissions and online survey responses.

No one from B.C.'s Finance Ministry was immediately available for comment on the report.