CFIB New Brunswick

I’m hoping the one of the takeaways from the US midterms is that the trade war with Canada did not help the administration in border states and the Midwest by exacerbating affordability issues. In addition, I’m hoping the shift in the balance of power may help facilitate a positive and lasting deal. 87% of Canadian small businesses want Canada and the US to negotiate an agreement as quickly as possible.

With rumours that this week’s federal budget focused on small business and entrepreneurship, the big test will be whether government includes broad-based measures, like a reduction in the small business corporate tax rate. Reducing small biz taxes or a payroll tax like EI would have far more positive impacts than the traditional approach of creating new funds or complicated grant and loan programs to shower support on a handful of well-connected companies. After dozens of pre-budget meetings with Ministers and MPs with all parties, I’ll be in Ottawa on Thursday to review and comment on the budget.

Hi @MichelleRempel. As you likely know, this was testimony from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, with 103,000 small businesses as members. The average CFIB member has 5-25 employees and pays us a membership fee of a few hundred dollars per year. And while most are indeed incorporated, your post is quite misleading.

If true, these budget rumours would be a big deal for small business. CFIB has been pushing hard for a reduction in the small business corporate rate from 9 to 6%. In addition, for more than a decade, we've been calling for a lower rate of EI premiums for smaller payrolls. We've suggested smaller firms have their EI rate tied 1:1 with the employee rate, rather than the current 1.4 multiplier. Fingers crossed for Nov 5. nationalpost.com/news/canada…

Visa lowers interchange fees for tens of thousands of small businesses, but new credit card fees are on the horizon cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/visa-l…

Thanks to Industry @ISED_CA Minister @melaniejoly for joining CFIB’s Board of Governors at our fall meeting in Montreal. It was good to catch up on the impact of the trade war on small business in advance of the fall budget.