Entrepreneurs deserve a seat at the table: CFIB

Advisory committee missing key voice, writes Amber Ruddy.

Alberta’s entrepreneurs are dynamic and innovative and closely connected to their employees and their customers.

This is Small Business Week, and while delivering value and quality service for customers should be the primary focus for entrepreneurs, they are also juggling myriad other issues.

The Alberta government has the difficult job of addressing the concerns of Albertans about the current economic downturn and facilitating a prosperous way forward. Last week, Premier Rachel Notley announced an advisory committee on the economy to “grow and diversify Alberta’s businesses.”

This committee is made up of a group of handselected individuals, including public- sector union bosses and heads of some of Alberta’s largest corporations. While these individuals have something to contribute to the discussion on how to strengthen Alberta’s economy, the panel is missing Alberta’s most important economic stakeholders — our small business owners and entrepreneurs, who account for 35 per cent of the jobs and a quarter of the GDP in the province.

Small businesses are strongly represented across the economy, making up 95 per cent of all businesses in the province. Alberta’s entrepreneurs are dynamic and innovative and closely connected to their employees and their customers.

Despite some suggesting that employers are wealthy, Statistics Canada figures show that for every Canadian employer who earns more than $ 250,000, there are five who earn less than $ 40,000. Entrepreneurs do everything they can to protect their valued employees, even if in some cases, it means personally forgoing a salary during tough times.

Small business owners are, in fact, in the best position to give advice on how to kick- start the economy. Yet the premier will be relying on wellmeaning but misplaced advice from the expert panel. Even the chair of the panel has cautioned there may be limited success because a government committee tasked with diversifying the economy is a laudable goal, but no easy feat.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business asked business owners to share their thoughts on the current economic climate. In a recent survey, entrepreneurs in Alberta listed the total tax burden ( 72 per cent), government regulation and paper burden ( 67 per cent) and government debt/ deficit ( 57 per cent) as serious concerns to their business.

The next Alberta budget must begin to address these issues, and not make them worse. Balancing the budget on an accelerated schedule, holding the line on the business tax to grow the base and reining in the regulatory burden, is the tough medicine that will increase competitiveness.

The recently created Alberta Small Business Strategy undertook the very important work of streamlining how government is structured to provide one- stop shopping for business services. Alberta’s new government has had months to share its vision for small business and it still remains to be seen if it will build on this strategy or abandon it.

Small businesses want their elected representatives to have a better understanding of the challenges of running a business. Appointing a panel full of big business executives and union bosses doesn’t exactly instil confidence the forthcoming recommendations will be in any way small- business focused.

Our province has historically been a place where entrepreneurship has been respected and encouraged, but if the composition of this new economic panel is any indication, it doesn’t seem like this government is intent on making policy decisions using a small business lens.

It is great that the premier issued a statement recognizing Small Business Week, but the promises made during the last election about introducing a job creation strategy have yet to be seen. The talk only means something if it translates into meaningful action that involves and supports entrepreneurs.

Albertans can celebrate Small Business Week by getting out there and frequenting your local flower shop, bakery or clothing store. The premier can celebrate by taking entrepreneurs’ concerns seriously and giving them a seat at the table. They deserve no less.