Independent businesses belong at the heart of Canada’s economic recovery, says national association
With just a week to go before the unveiling of the federal budget, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says the government must use the opportunity to lay out a clear path to recovery for small businesses and, consequently, Canada itself.
Corinne Pohlmann, CFIB's senior vice-president of national affairs, stated, "Businesses continue to struggle with decreased revenue, staffing shortages and major cost increases.
“While optimism is returning as restrictions begin to lift, many businesses are hoping to see concrete measure in the federal budget that will help them deal with the cost of doing business, labour shortages and COVID-related debt,” Pohlmann said in the statement from CFIB. “This federal budget must not only ensure small businesses survive the challenging months ahead but help them rebuild and instill confidence in consumers.”
The association referred to an earlier letter it addressed to Chrystia Freeland, where it laid out a plan for Canada’s economic recovery with small businesses as its focus. That included four main tenets: lowering business expenses; cutting red tape; addressing the labour shortage; laying forth a plan to manage the deficit; and ensuring that COVID-19 actions, as well as other programs, are tailored to small business needs.
More than nine out of ten enterprises (94%) feel their costs have risen at a time when they can hardly afford it. To keep their enterprises afloat, CFIB said, business owners have worked longer hours and taken on massive debt loads.
"Small businesses have been put through the wringer over the past two years," CFIB president Dan Kelly said. "For the economic recovery to be realized, small businesses need to be the central focus of Budget 2022. This budget needs to set a clear plan for economic recovery that will return confidence to business owners about their future."
As small businesses in all sectors and locations get back on their feet in the coming months, CFIB said it's vital that they have the tools and resources they need to succeed. To that end, it cited four recommendations from its letter to Minister Freeland:
- Extend the Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP) until at least September 2022 will aid small business economic recovery;
- Assure customers that it is now safe to engage in in-person activities including shopping, dining, traveling, and attending events, among others;
- Assist the most hard-hit small companies in resolving COVID-19-related debt, which it said might be accomplished by increasing the forgiven component of their Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan to 50%, extending the CEBA repayment deadline beyond December 2023, and finding a means to help newer enterprises; and
- Introduce a strategy to phase out all federal COVID-19 limitations and vaccine mandates, including those relating to travel and border crossing, this spring, and to urge all federal employees to return to in-person office work.
