Liberal Party spokesman Joseph Mayer told IT World Canada's Kathleen Lau the party views IT as “absolutely essential” to a successful economy. The Liberals would support the industry, he said, with investments in research and development, and would commit to blanketing rural Canada with broadband Internet access.
Mayer said the Liberals are concerned about other parties' talk of eliminating corporate tax cuts — businesses with stretched resources often put off investment in updating IT systems, so a fair tax regime for corporations is important, he said.
Specifically, according to the party's Green Shift campaign platform, the Liberals would cut corporate income tax to 14 per cent within four years; SMBs would get an additional one per cent tax cut. The Science, Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit would become 25 per cent refundable, and extended to all companies that do R&D in Canada.
Read the Liberal Party platform here.