Keeping Small Businesses’ Voices Strong and Heard

With a new government and some fresh faces in the House of Commons, the National Affairs team was back on the hill at the end of May to remind Parliament that there is plenty of unfinished business that requires their attention.

Our top priorities:

Driven by member data, our priorities continue to focus on delivering economic relief to small business owners. They range from tax reform and trade support to cutting red tape.

Here are some of the priorities we raised with the new government and opposition MPs during the short spring session:

1. Carbon tax and the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (LCGE): We continue to ask the federal government to keep its promise to make the carbon rebate for small businesses tax free. We also want to make sure the LCGE increase to $1.25 million is legislated as soon as possible.
2. Lower business taxes: the Canada-US trade war continues to put pressure on our economy. Small firms are also grappling with reduced consumer spending, the high cost of doing business, excessive red tape, and a heavy tax burden. Temporarily reducing the federal small business tax rate from 9% to 0% for the foreseeable future would give small business owners some well-deserved breathing room.
3. Help mitigate the impact of tariffs on affected SMEs: We’re calling on government to return the counter-tariff revenues to affected small businesses and to assist them in diversifying supply chains.
4. Remove internal trade barriers: Red tape is hindering the flow of goods, services, and labour across Canada, costing businesses valuable time and money. We ask the provincial and federal governments to immediately adopt mutual recognition in order to allow goods and services approved in one province to be sold and used in all other provinces and territories without additional requirements.
5. Reduce payroll taxes on employers: Introduce a lower EI premium rate for smaller employers or move the employer/employee split from 60/40 to 50/50.

Advocacy work

Even though the session was short, we met several Members of Parliaments (MPs) and presented at the Prime Minister’s Economic Growth Caucus, in addition to having sent out letters and submissions.

To help MPs better understand some of the key issues for small businesses, we've also sent them our small business priorities binder.

Even though the House of Commons has adjourned for the summer, we will continue to hold the government accountable for the commitments they made to small businesses.

Follow us on X to stay up to date on our activities:

• CFIB's President and CEO, Dan Kelly
• CFIB's National Affairs team

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