Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is criticizing the Liberal government’s proposed $15-million capital gains exemption, arguing its restrictions would leave too many Canadian businesses outside the tax break.

In an interview on CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live airing Sunday, Poilievre called the Canada Growth Incentive overly complicated and urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to adopt a broader tax-deferral plan instead, CBC’s Benjamin Lopez Steven reported.

“Basically, I can’t figure out who actually qualifies,” Poilievre said.

The incentive, included in the federal budget tabled Thursday, would provide an exemption on capital gains from the sale of qualifying shares in a Canadian company. Excluded sectors include agriculture, fishing, forestry, finance, insurance, utilities, real estate, food and accommodation, arts, recreation and entertainment.

The budget projects $715 million in tax relief over four years, starting next fiscal year.

The government says the measure would encourage founders to build valuable companies in Canada, help early-stage employees receive equity as compensation and improve investors’ after-tax returns. The Council of Canadian Innovators, which represents 175 high-growth Canadian companies, welcomed it as a way to help businesses attract talent and expand.

Poilievre’s alternative would let businesses and individuals fully defer capital gains taxes when they reinvest those gains in Canada. He said he had personally proposed the idea to Carney and encouraged the prime minister to adopt it.

Poilievre also expressed support for the budget’s productivity mega-deduction, expected to cost about $36 billion over five years, saying measures that reduce taxes on investment are “positive.”

The debate comes amid wider criticism of the budget’s balance between business investment and household support. NDP Leader Avi Lewis argued that its affordability measures were overshadowed by benefits for large companies and investors.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told CBC that affordability remained “top of mind,” pointing to a larger grocery benefit, an extension of the federal fuel excise-tax suspension and dental-care and pharmacare measures. He acknowledged that the proposed investment and productivity measures would take time to deliver tangible benefits.

Sources