Page 6 - Mar-Apr-2020 - Reporter

Message from the PRESIDENT

we have to think positive and

look toward the future

david campbell t the time of this writing, the whole country It should be noted that the HRTC program
LBMAO President Ais going through a crisis that Canadians have could be implemented immediately as the
never before experienced. The COVID-19 virus platform is already in place. Through the
has impacted every citizen and devastated our Building Materials Council of Canada, we will
economy. be communicating our recommendation for
Social distancing and the emergency implementation of the HRTC as soon as the
measures being encouraged, and even enforced, pandemic starts to subside, and we move from
by our government are necessary and prudent to containment to a recovery mode.
help reduce the impact on health - socially and Another result of the current crisis is the
economically. While the immediate focus is on challenge of depending on a huge amount of
containment and recovery, we will all have to deal our consumable products being manufactured
with the impact of this disaster on our future overseas (primarily China). We have seen the
health and well being, physically, results as much of the health care equipment
"Through the mentally and financially. used by our first responders and health care
Building Materials A recovery from this pandemic workers has been in short supply or not
will be slow and painful and available at all. Hundreds of thousands of
Council of governments at all levels will have containers sitting in ports in China; and China’s
Canada, we will be to have in place a recovery plan to manufacturing being shut down created a crisis
in our supply chain. This is a situation that we
move us forward in the next few
communicating our years. Right now, social distancing need to address, both by government and the
is the term that we are all using and business community.
recommendation for practicing; however, sometime in The emphasis on selling cheap by importing
implementation of the future (hopefully, not too long) from jurisdictions that pay low wages and have
we will be focusing on stimulus. minimal workers’ rights needs to be re-evaluated
the HRTC as soon as Stimulus spending by the because of the impact of this approach on the
the pandemic starts government is not new; it is a tool supply chain. Being made in Canada or North
that the Bank of Canada and our America might have implications on the cost
to subside..." governments at all levels use to of products; but providing a secure source of
move the economy forward to quality product especially in categories such as
create jobs and tax revenue to recover from health care, communication software, military
economic downturns. procurement and other critical areas in health
During the financial crisis of 2008-09, the care and security of person and nation simply
government of Canada introduced the Home makes sense.
Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC) which proved We wish everyone a speedy recovery from this
to be one of the most effective tools to unprecedented interruption in our lives - both at
stimulate a recovery by providing employment the business and personal level.
and tax revenues. We saw a significant drop
in the underground economy and increased
employment opportunities in the building supply
and hardware sector.

6 LBMAO Reporter - March-April 2020 www.lbmao.on.ca