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.

CFIB: Half of Canada’s small exporters and importers hit by new U.S. tariffs and Canadian counter-tariffs – many at risk if trade war lasts more than 3 months cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/half-o…

Glad to see the federal government extended the gas tax holiday until the new year. This was the right decision and will help small businesses and consumers avoid another cost hike at this critical time.

For several days, CFIB has been seeking clarification from ministers on whether tariff relief programs will be opened up to small business. This interview with Minister @EvanLSolomon suggests it may happen eventually. CFIB has had some positive signals that the current thresholds that block at least half of small businesses from applying for support through Regional Development Agencies may be lowered or scrapped. But I can offer no confirmation today. It is shameful that this issue, which CFIB has been raising for months, has not been fixed. halifax.citynews.ca/video/20…

While we appreciate that the government is trying to move quickly, at first glance it looks like small business owners are being served the usual alphabet soup of complicated programs. They will be challenging for small business owners to figure out, let alone use. To date, the federal Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI) delivered by Regional Development Agencies have excluded most small businesses from even applying.  Some required a minimum of $2 million in sales, others a minimum of 10 employees. Today’s announcement doesn’t appear to have changed these thresholds. Unless the thresholds are eliminated entirely, then the government will have failed in its promise to support small business owners. The new U.S. 50% tariff hits even the smallest home-based jewellery maker, so why would our government’s support exclude them? What we are looking for is one simple program for small businesses that removes as much of the burden of tariffs as possible, ideally delivered by the Canada Revenue Agency.  Instead, we have a patchwork of agencies and programs that no small business has ever heard of before, largely delivering loans to businesses that will have no ability to pay them back.  While I respect Canada’s need to respond to the U.S. threat, the giant list of counter tariffs will create their own severe challenges for many small businesses who have already done what they can to seek new sources of supply. Canada’s support programs need to be available for companies that use, import or distribute U.S. products too.   And for tens of thousands of other businesses, the trade war will mean more uncertainty, higher input costs and lower consumer demand due to its indirect impacts. CFIB is urging the federal government to deliver an immediate cut to the small business tax rate, retroactive to January 1, 2026. The government already publicly signaled a focus on small business in the 2026 fall budget. Doing it now would send a much-needed reassuring message to Canada's entrepreneurs. We’re also urging the government to extend the suspension of the federal excise tax on gasoline and diesel. It’s set to expire on Sept. 7, one day before retaliatory tariffs kick in. The timing couldn’t be worse to see taxes and fuel prices rise. I do recognize that it is very challenging to get programs right in a matter of days. As we did during the pandemic, CFIB stands ready to work closely with the federal government and all parliamentarians to find ways to make any supports work for Canada’s small business community. cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/cfib-s…

MY MESSAGE TO GOVERNMENTS ON TARIFF SUPPORTS FOR SMALL BUSINESS: There are over 400 new categories of products now hit by 50% US tariffs. Governments seem to recognize that these new tariffs will hit Canadian small businesses especially hard. Among my 103,000 members at CFIB, nearly 20% export to the US - and our data shows that, of those, 40% will have their products subject to this giant tariff. To their credit, governments have pledged supports to help the affected businesses. The PM himself spoke of this in his weekend statement. We are expecting to hear what this support will look like in the days ahead. But I have some concerns. There will be 3 different groups of businesses affected by the tariff war: GROUP 1: Canadian exporters on the section 338 list facing the 50% US tariff. GROUP 2. Canadian importers facing the Canada's new round of retaliatory tariffs on US products (to be announced soon and go into effect after Labour Day). GROUP 3. Other Canadian businesses who suffer from the general economic slowdown, higher input costs and dampened consumer spending brought about by the trade war. To be clear, CFIB opposes business subsidies in normal economic times. Our members have always believed that governments should allow businesses to keep more of their own retained earnings through lower taxes, rather than have governments pick winners and losers. The only time we support business subsidies is when government decisions themselves bring harm to business. This includes events like pandemic lockdowns and trade wars. Here is my advice to governments for each of the 3 tariff affected groups of small businesses. GROUP 1: For those affected by the new 338 tariffs, governments need to reduce or eliminate the impact of tariffs to allow small businesses to survive the trade war. One-third of my members on the list expect their total revenues to drop by 50% or more. Please don't just add more useless loan programs. We need a simple program, ideally delivered by one agency like the CRA, which would allow businesses to prove they sell items on the US list and receive either (a) a direct cash grant or (b) a refund of any tariffs they pay (if they self-import into the US) or if they cut their prices to keep their US customer. I am VERY worried the federal and provincial governments will announce a million micro-programs each with a dozen hoops to jump through. In fact, the current federal tariff relief programs are mostly loans delivered by Regional Development Agencies which specifically bar small businesses from even applying. We've been lobbying for months to change this, and the federal government has done nothing about it. This is shameful. GROUP 2: For those importers who will be required to pay Canadian retaliatory tariffs, they will need help. I am very concerned that the Canadian government will target the same list as the US has, which means wholesalers and distributors may have products hit by both Canadian and US tariffs at the same time. For these businesses, government needs to provide direct support. This could be a direct grant and a significantly enhanced tariff remissions process. We currently have a process to reduce or refund Canadian tariffs for several reasons, but it is ridiculously bad. We've been in a trade war for a year and half, but we have not created any capacity to deal with remission cases at scale if we are looking at dollar for dollar tariffs. It feels like we have 2 bureaucrats and a box of pencils as resources. Beyond this, I've recommended governments do any retaliation very surgically. We all want to fight back, but it is easy to say you support retaliation if your participation is a 25 cent increase on a jar of peanut butter. But a trade war means that we will be asking some very small businesses to put their entire family's future on the line. GROUP 3: For the countless other small businesses that will be affected more indirectly (due to higher prices and dampened consumer spending), they need help and a reason to keep fighting. As the federal government has already publicly signaled it will be focused on small business in the 2026 fall budget, I propose the announcement of an immediate reduction in the small business corporate tax rate retroactive to Jan 1, 2026. This would send a very reassuring message to Canada's entrepreneurs. I credit the governments of Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador for already cutting their small business rates in their spring budgets. --- None of this is to second guess the decision of the federal government to walk away from the negotiating table. And I am not expecting government support programs to be perfect upon launch. Indeed, the pandemic support programs were a complete mess when first announced. But many improvements were made as we went, mostly suggested by my organization. We need to act quickly, but we should have learned a lot from the many pandemic mistakes. Armed with the data we collect from regular surveys of over 100,000 small businesses, CFIB stands ready to work with all governments to help Canada fight and win this battle. And, to small business owners, if you want us to go to the wall for you, visit cfib.ca.