VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Adrian Dix got a cautious welcome from BC’s business community today with his first speech at the Vancouver Board of Trade.

The leader of the BC NDP says raising corporate taxes to pay for education is in his plans.

Dix says productivity, inequality and sustainability are his three main focuses.

To pay for education, he suggests raising corporate income taxes to 2008 levels and reinstating a tax on the banks.
    
“I think it is essential, particularly in the wake of what happened to the HST, that people know where we stand on taxation issues before the election,” Dix says.

He also wants to reinstate non-refundable needs-based student grants.

“And I’ve said how I’m going to pay for it- and this is challenging in this room- which is to reinstate the minimum tax on the banks that was taken away in 2008.”

Former Liberal MLA turned Board of Trade President Iain Black says Dix’s tax plans could scare business away.

“Raising business taxes on the small and mid-size business community in the province is one of the few options he’s got to play with and that he obviously intends to do that,” he says. “I think that Mr. Dix said it very politely, but he made it clear that he doesn’t have a lot of options and that he’s going to have to embrace some of those things that make our members very uncomfortable,” he says.

Dix thinks one of the major flaws of the NDP government of the 1990s was doing too much, passing dozens of bills in its first year. As a result, government policy and its implementation suffered.

He emphasized his father’s small business career and received a standing ovation from half the room.