Page 44 - GBC summer 2016

Jeff Calderwood, CEO of NGCOA Canada, meets with the Honourable Lisa Raitt, MP for Milton, ON and Official Opposition Finance Critic.
RE-BRANDED GRASSROOTS EFFORT
The fiscal cost of correcting the inequity in the tax code is hard to pin down, but would amount to a few tens of millions of dollars at the very most, which for the federal government is not a large sum. Further, the spinoff effects from making the change to the law the industry is suggesting would result in it representing a much smaller cost to the government.
Corporate clients would entertain their own clients more on golf courses as a result, taxable revenues would increase, and in the end the total cost of the measure would be negligible from the government’s perspective. It all means that from a practical perspective, the recommendation is cost-neutral as far as the federal government is concerned.
“We are launching a renewed and re-branded grassroots effort for all golf industry participants across Canada for 2016, with the goal of getting our tax recommendation in the 2017 federal budget,” says Calderwood.
“The difference between success and failure for these types of things is the engagement of association members across the country. Delivering the message in Ottawa to Members of Parliament is one thing, and something we will continue to do, but bringing the same message to those MPs in their home ridings is so much more valuable, particularly when the message is coming from a local small business and employer.
“Also, there are almost 200 rookie MPs in this Parliament that have no idea about our industry or our tax issue. We need our members’ help in bringing this campaign over the goal line in the next 12 months. It’s as simple as that.”
This effort, along with ongoing work in the nation’s capital, has resulted in hundreds of meetings with elected officials about the issue, and a huge amount of national media attention.
“We really wanted to establish golf as an important industry in the eyes of political decision makers in Ottawa,” says Jeff Calderwood, CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association Canada and national spokesperson for NAGA.
“Our members across the country and members of the other golf organizations want to establish a voice with governments whose everyday decisions impact their businesses in very important ways.”
Golf, in other words, is not simply a fun way to spend an afternoon. It is an important industry across Canada, representing hun- dreds of thousands of jobs, many of them to young people gaining their first toehold in the labour market. Readers of this magazine take this fact for granted, but the wider public sees golf not as an industry, but a pastime.
Despite the goodwill that clearly exists across all parties for the sport and the industry, making the tax change has proven a hard sell for politicians keenly aware of the negative perception associated
with giving firms tax deductions for a day on the links.
“This is a challenging issue for the industry,” said Huw Williams, president of Impact Public Affairs, the Ottawa firm engaged to roll out the advocacy campaign on behalf of NAGA.
“It is clear that golf is singled out unfairly regarding the tax treatment of allowable business expenses. But, when making this argument, the golf industry has to make it clear that it is not looking for special treatment, only equity and fairness. We have made this pitch to politicians for five years now, and behind closed doors almost inevitably they are onside with NAGA’s position.
“However, getting an elected official to publicly state he or she is in favour of restoring a tax deduction for golf has been a huge challenge. This is due to the perception of golf as an elitist sport. This is why NAGA members and industry participants need to get involved with the grassroots effort. The perception challenge for this particular policy problem means that the golf industry has to be that much better at getting its message out that it is about fairness and small business competitiveness. We hope that happens in 2016.”
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Golf Business Canada