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A plan to raise taxes on stock options by Canada’s New Democratic Party would hinder growth in the country’s burgeoning technology industry, which relies on share grants to attract talent, entrepreneurs and investors said.

Tom Mulcair’s NDP will tax 100 per cent of stock-option benefits, up from the current 50 per cent, if it wins power in the Oct. 19 election. The party, with socialist roots, is locked in a tight three-way race with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and the Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, who haven’t proposed any changes to the tax.

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It could be a huge step backward and a huge blow to the ecosystem

New Democrats have characterized the current rate as a “loophole” exploited by Canada’s wealthiest chief executive officers. Increasing it would also affect startups, which often pay a lower salary and use stock options to compensate employees for taking a gamble on a new, risky business venture.

“It could be a huge step backward and a huge blow to the ecosystem,” said Andrew D’Souza, a former executive at education tech company Top Hat Monocle Inc. who’s putting together a new financial services startup. If the NDP wins and applies the policy, he said he might have to move his Canadian staff to San Francisco.