Charlottetown, October 5, 2018 – With Municipal Election Day just one month away, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) wants candidates across the province thinking about the small businesses in their communities. To help, CFIB has published a small business guide for municipal platforms.
“Small businesses form the backbone of local communities. For anyone thinking about the prosperity of their community, a vision for small business needs to be something they think about,” said Erin McGrath-Gaudet, director for P.E.I. and intergovernmental policy.
Among the priorities CFIB wants municipal candidates to think about is the gap that currently exists between the property tax rates paid by residential and commercial properties.
“Non-residential properties across the province pay higher rates than residential ones. At the same time, they tend to receive fewer services than local residents,” said McGrath-Gaudet.
Another consideration at the top of the list for small business owners is municipal red tape.
“For a lot of smaller municipalities, red tape is almost non-existent but there is a real risk that things will become more burdensome for businesses as those municipalities start to adapt to the province’s new Municipal Government Act. A municipal charter governing how they will regulate businesses in their community, like we’ve seen adopted in Halifax, would be a great place for all municipalities to start,” said McGrath-Gaudet.
To learn more, see CFIB's small business guide for municipal platforms.
For media enquiries or interviews, please contact Erin McGrath-Gaudet, Director for P.E.I. and Intergovernmental Policy at (902) 620-4914 or erin.mcgrath-gaudet@cfib.ca.
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 110,000 members across every sector and region. Learn more at cfib.ca
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