MPs were back in Ottawa this week for the resumption of Parliament, and the Liberal's proposed tax changes for small businesses has dominated debate so far.
    
Conservative leader Andrew Sheer accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of attacking hard-working, middle-class small business owners.    

At the heart of this issue is whether self-employed Canadians, such as small-business owners and farmers, should be able to continue incorporating and benefiting from special tax rules, or loopholes that other Canadians paying personal income taxes don't enjoy.

The current tax rules for self-employed people and business owners are intended to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and save for tough times. But the Liberals have said wealthy individuals are using the loopholes to decrease their tax bill and, in the process, boosting their take-home pay and personal savings. Those are the loopholes the government is proposing to close.

But business groups have said the proposed new rules are too complicated and will unfairly punish small business owners.

Portage-Lisgar Tory MP Candice Bergen agrees, calling the tax changes unfair, punitive and just plain wrong.

"Justin Trudeau has said that he thought that small business owners were tax cheats, and his ideology and demonization of the very people who are creating jobs and keeping our economy going, especially in communities in Portage-Lisgar. So, we are fighting tooth and nail because it will have such a drastic and very negative impact on our local businesses.

Bergen pointed out that farmers could be in for a significant financial hit from the proposed tax changes as well.

About one-quarter of all farms in Canada are family farm corporations, meaning the shares are held by family members. Farmers can use family members in a variety of ways to reduce capital gain taxes when selling shares or farmland, even to their own children.

Proposed new rules, such as disqualifying capital gains earned by minors and restricting the use of family trusts for the exemption, could mean farmers take a big hit on their retirement plans.

"This will have a huge impact on farm succession planning, in which producers they sell their farms to their children. They actually would be better off financially to sell their farm to some foreign investor instead of selling the farm to their own family. That's the impact of these measures," said Bergen.

Bergen said the opposition Conservative Party is focused on this issue and intends to fight the legislation to the very end.

She suggested small business owners and farmers in Portage-Lisgar start calling Winnipeg Liberal MPs like Jim Carr and MaryAnn Mihychuk to communicate their opposition to the plan.

"I think the only way that they will back down is if they keep hearing and getting pressure from small business owners and from their own backbenchers."