An Opportunity for Federal leadership

Dave Smith has been an Industrial Maintenance Electrician since 1975. He has taught maintenance, troubleshooting and safety courses to thousands of electricians in mines, mills, refineries, factories, plants, power stations and offshore platforms throughout North America and the Middle East. Dave is a hands-on guy and teache...

We are at a time of enormous change in the Canadian world of electrical safety practices. Driven by NFPA 70E and our own CSA Z462, companies from coast to coast are responding in ways they have never done so before. One by one, companies are implementing Arc Flash Hazard studies, adopting FR PPE, rewriting procedures and providing unheard-of budgets for state-of-the-art equipment and training.

At the same time, these companies leading the way are also those with healthy financial statements. There are a number of companies across the country whose financial difficulties make the provision of these budgets very painful for them.

My late uncle Ronald, a very successful businessman, used to say, “The business of business is business,” and every accountant knows this intimately. No matter how effectively safety professionals argue that investments in safety precautions repay themselves tenfold, it is still a tough argument to make when a company faces a stretched line of credit. Regardless of the need, budgets rule all.

I suggest we petition our federal government and enlist the help of Revenue Canada and our politicians. If companies could take safety investments and have them credited tenfold against taxable income, then all companies could benefit from these investments.

Consider this: were a $100,000-investment to equal a $1-million write-off, even the stingiest money manager would have to agree with the investment. Making the argument that an investment will prevent something is difficult to prove, but it is far easier when the investment can provide a guaranteed return.

Furthermore, allowing this write-off to be transitioned through to owners would be of further benefit—note that if an investor owned a business that was already losing money, a further write-off may not be helpful. If the safety-related write-off could move from the company to the owner and be used toward his personal income tax, budgets across the country would suddenly open up.

Presently, safety-related concerns are largely left at the provincial level while taxation resides at the federal level. We have many business and professional associations who could join forces to lobby our federal politicians. There would be a loss of tax revenue to the feds, true, but there are also too many offsetting benefits to list in this short column.

We could use our taxation system as a positive driver for our economy, thus creating a snowball effect: when our enterprises are healthy, our economy will follow and, consequently, our people and Canada as a whole.

I believe the success of this endeavor would create a tsunami of safety-related investments across the country with enormous returns; many of which are foreseeable, and far more that would be revealed.

Until next time, be ready, be careful and be safe.

Canada Training Group has been providing consulting services to industry since 1980; Dave Smith, the president, can be reached at davesmith@canada-training-group.ca