Toronto, June 19, 2025 – One in five businesses (21%) report being in a good economic health, according to the June Business Barometer® survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
The long-term optimism index gained 7.1 points, reaching 47.3 in June. While it’s been steadily increasing for the past three months, it remains below the breakeven point of 50.
Average price plans remained unchanged at 2.9%, and similarly wage plans were almost the same at 2.2%. Weak consumer demand, while easing, remains the top limitation for over half (51%) of small firms.
“Early signs point to small businesses getting used to tariffs and finding alternatives, but many are not out of the woods just yet. While most indicators stayed the same or slightly improved, businesses are still feeling the impacts of the lingering inflation, tariffs, counter-tariffs and overall economic uncertainty,” said Simon Gaudreault, CFIB’s chief economist and vice-president of research.
CFIB’s special release on tourism shows that long-term optimism among tourism businesses sits at pandemic-era levels (40.8 index points), which is among the lowest levels recorded in the last 16 years. Although summer is tourism’s busiest season, only 14% of businesses in the industry are planning to hire in the next few months, while record-low consumer demand continues plaguing 57% of tourism firms.
“Recent trade tensions, uncertainty and lack of consumer demand are hitting the tourism sector hard. It’s also concerning that in the past 11 months their hiring plans have been in the red,” said Andreea Bourgeois, CFIB director of economics. “We urgently need governments to reduce taxes, promote buying local, and ease the costs of doing business if we want to improve Canada’s economic state and help businesses make the most out of this critical time of year.”
Ryan Mallough, CFIB
647-464-2814
public.affairs@cfib.ca
June Business Barometer®: findings are based on 412 responses from a stratified random sample of CFIB members, to a controlled-access web survey. Data reflects responses received from June 3 to 9. Findings are statistically accurate to +/- 4.8 per cent, 19 times in 20. Every new month, the entire series of indicators is recalculated for the previous month to include all survey responses received in that previous month. Measured on a scale between 0 and 100, an index below 50 means owners expecting their business’s performance to be weaker over the next three or 12 months outnumber those expecting stronger performance.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 100,000 members across every industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners’ chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.