33% of Canadian Owners Resent Having Started their Business

A third of business owners are bothered by government regulations to the point that they insist they would sooner have not gone into business in the first place. This is according to a survey performed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), according to the organization’s Executive Vice President, Laura Jones.

Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB): “The Big Voice for Small Business in Canada”

For those unfamiliar with the organization, CFIB represents over 109,000 small business owners across Canada and has done so for over 40 years. CFIB provides council to owners dealing with obstacles to running their businesses in Canada, and lobbies to the government on their behalf. This in addition to publishing a monthly business barometer that is widely quoted as measure of confidence among small businesses across the country.

Some of the organizations most notable victories include:

• Introducing a special federal small business corporate tax threshold and then expanding it to every province
• Increasing the Small Business Corporate Tax threshold to $500,000
• Increasing the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption to $750,000
• Influencing the federal government to commit to the reduction of paper burden by 20 per cent
• Reducing Employment Insurance (EI) premiums since 1994
• Defeating the proposed mergers of four of Canada’s chartered banks

Difficulty in Starting Businesses is Only a Part of the Problem, Running a Business in Canada is Overly Complicated

While referring to a popular international survey carried out annually by the World Bank called the “Ease of Doing Business Index,” Laura Jones added, “there is still a lot missing.” She says that her membership is more concerned with difficulties in running a business. In addition to taxes business owners in Canada are overwhelmed by excessive regulations.

Recently, in part due to lobbying by the CFIB on behalf of Canadian businesses the federal government enacted a “1 in, 1 out rule” that sees one regulation removed for each regulation added. “It’s a good start,” says the CFIB representative. In addition to these issues the organization is also actively lobbying against the proposed pension increases in Ontario, as well as in the interest of removing barriers to trade across provinces and territories.

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