Congrats to new government, MPs, now let’s get to work, CFIB says
by CM Staff
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is calling on the Liberal government to implement what it calls the best ideas from each party.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has a message for Prime Minister Trudeau and all elected MPs after last night’s federal election: congratulations, now let’s get back to work.
“With the election behind us, it is critical that we return to the important work of getting Canadians and Canada’s job creators through the difficult months ahead,” said CFIB president Dan Kelly in a Sept. 21 news release. “Most importantly, with vaccine passports and new provincial restrictions causing additional revenue losses and higher costs, CFIB is calling on the government and all opposition parties to extend the wage and rent subsidies and return them to the maximum 75 per cent level.”
CFIB is calling on the Liberal government to move quickly to implement the best ideas from each party that emerged during the election campaign. These include:
- Extend the wage and rent subsidy until all pandemic restrictions are lifted (NDP/Green Party)
- Reopen the CEBA loan program and raise threshold to $200,000 with 25 per cent forgivable (Conservatives)
- Provide financial support to small business owners required to implement vaccine passports (using the $1 billion fund promised by the Liberals)
- Rethink the Canada Recovery Benefit to ensure it doesn’t contribute to a shortage of workers (Bloc Québécois)
Small business recovery has remained at a stand-still for the past few months, with 76 per cent of businesses reporting they are fully open, 45 per cent fully staffed and 40 per cent back to their usual levels of sales, according to CFIB’s latest survey.
“The average small business has inherited $170,000 in COVID related debt and is struggling to find staff amid growing labour shortages,” said Corinne Pohlmann, CFIB’s senior vice-president of national affairs. “The new government can give business owners some much-needed assistance by acting on ideas that were put forward by the different parties during the election to help businesses deal with these challenges.”
CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 95,000 members across the country.
