December 07, 2017 The Honourable William Morneau Department of Finance Canada 90 Elgin Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G5 Re:
via email: fin.cannabis-taxation-cannabis.fin@canada.ca
Proposed Excise Duty Framework for Cannabis Products
The Cannabis Trade Alliance of Canada (CTAC), is an organization established to represent a broad range of cannabis industry participants. CTAC has been engaging governments across Canada, recommending policies to assist the drafting of regulations and legislation, and encouraging governments to leverage the existing knowledge base of the cannabis industry to create an inclusive, sustainable and transparent legalized structure. We appreciate the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed excise duty applied to cannabis products.
Taxation Structures The economic impact of legalizing Cannabis is very positive for the federal, provincial and municipal government and taxpayers. A proper taxation structure could potentially deliver billions of dollars in new revenue from the cannabis sector, funds that governments can reinvest in other areas including: •
public health care and harm-reduction (including mental health and addiction),
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education and awareness initiatives, and
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community infrastructure programs (such as the construction of public buildings and other community amenities).
New tax revenues would be complemented by the ability to reallocate law enforcement, correction, border and justice resources to more critically important tasks
Taxation on Me dical Cannabis CTAC believes that medical cannabis should be treated like other prescribed pharmaceuticals. This means: •
Zero-rated for GST/HST (not tax-exempt),
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No provincial sales tax, and
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No excise tax.
www.sustainablecannabis.ca