The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has described a decision by the federal government to extend the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) into the fall as a positive step.
The organization made the comment yesterday following the tabling of a federal budget it said, “laid out a plan for recovery, including helping small businesses hire more workers.”
“Small businesses have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with only 56% fully open across the country a year after the pandemic began,” said CFIB president Dan Kelly. “(The) budget delivered meaningful support to many, but there are still critical gaps in the federal relief programs that exclude tens of thousands of hard-hit businesses.”
A key item in the budget, he added, is the new Canada Recovery Hiring Program, which will be a “powerful tool to help small firms bring back their staff as we move into the recovery phase of the pandemic.
“(We) will work with government to ensure it is broadly available, including to new firms and those that were not in a position to use the wage subsidy.”
CFIB added that it is also pleased to see the government commit to “reducing credit card swipe fees that merchants pay. Some of these costs have increased over the pandemic, as rates for online and telephone-based transactions are much higher than in-store fees. CFIB will work with government and the payments industry to help deliver on this promise.”
It said it also supports the government’s plan to levy existing taxes on international digital and e-commerce players in order to level the playing field between Canadian and foreign business.
“We will encourage parliament to reject the planned luxury tax for certain car, truck and boat purchases on behalf of the small firms who are involved in these important sectors of our economy,” Kelly added.
While the extension of existing programs was hailed as good news, CFIB said it is disappointed that new businesses are still shut out of accessing any support: “In addition, no new measures were put in place to help address the $170,000 in new COVID-related debt the average small firm has taken on.
“(We) had recommended government increase the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans to $80,000 with a 50% forgivable portion as well as adding a forgivable portion to loans under the Heavily Affected Sector Credit Availability Program (HASCAP).
“While small firms understand the need for large short-term deficits to address the many COVID-related costs, we are concerned about the significant amount of non-COVID spending in this budget.
“Small business owners worry that today’s deficits will turn into tomorrow’s taxes. The government must put forward a long-term plan to balance the budget to give business owners much-needed certainty as we all work towards economic recovery.”
