The good fight
CANADIAN FEDERAIION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS CARRIES ON ITS MANDATE TO DEFEND SMALL BUSINESS
Forty-three years ago, a group of small businesses joined forces to protest a proposed 50% tax rate on small business income. Since then CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Business) has grown in numbers and strength as it continues to fight for the needs of small business owners.
“Progress has definitely been made since those early days of protest,” says Dan Kelly, CFIB president and chief executive officer. “What hasn’t changed that much are the top priorities for our members, which we gather from ongoing surveys and personal visits with our members.”
The No. 1 issue throughout the years has been the total tax burden on small firms, he says. The need for less red tape consistently comes second.
Kelly is delighted to report that 2014 has been a significant year for CFIB’s efforts. Most notable was the moment the brakes were put on the expansion of the Canada Pension Plan at the end of 2013. “The late minister [Jim] Flaherty did small firms a great favour by putting discussions on expanding CPP on hold.”
The reason for concern was not a debate on whether in- dividuals wanted or needed more funds in retirement. The reason small firms are so sensitive about any expansion is that CPP stands as Canada’s largest payroll tax for businesses. “Canadians already pay 10% of their pay into CPP, split between the employer and the employee,” Kelly explains.
CFIB had run a multi-year campaign to push back against CPP premium increases. “We were thrilled when the whole thing was stopped in most parts
pro gress has definitelybenmade sincethose early da ys of protest of Canada. In Ontario, however, we continue to have a major fight to push back against the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, which plans to hit every small employer and employee with an additional 4% tax per paycheque. But at least the waters have been calmed on the CPP front for now.”
Another big win for CFIB members has been the reduction in employment insur- ance (EI) premiums for small firms – another long-fought campaign. September 2014 saw Finance Minister Joe Oliver announce a $550-million cut in EI premiums for small firms over the next two years through the Small Business Job Credit.
“This gives any firm across Canada with fewer than 12 employees a 15% cut in their EI premiums,” Kelly says. “That was a key recommendation this year. And in 2017, all Canadian businesses and employees will get a larger reduction in EI premiums.”
One of the biggest campaigns on CFIB’s agenda has been reductions in credit card processing fees. “We have spent a massive amount of effort over the past six years lobbying on this one,” Kelly says. The effort is finally paying off with the 2014 Government of Canada budget announcement stating it will work to lower credit card processing fees for merchants.
“This has long been a huge source of irritation for small firms, one that is even greater since banks started issuing premium credit cards. For some businesses, fees are their second-largest operating cost,” Kelly says.
While there has been significant positive movement with the code of conduct for the industry and measures to ensure Canada’s low-cost Interac debit system remains in place, merchants have not seen a meaningful reduction in credit card processing fees, Kelly reports. “But we are working hard to achieve a victory for small firms and our hope is that we will see something big on this front soon.”
There are also many small victories in which CFIB has played a key role. “We’ve seen some nice examples of regulatory relief for Canada Revenue Agency filings for example, so small businesses won’t have to file different taxes and paperwork as often. That’s nice to see.”
While CFIB has achieved many victories, it is still working hard on several other files, including the Temporary For- eign Workers (TFW) Program and anti-spam legislation, Kelly says. “We were disappointed by the avalanche of criticism over the TFW program. The shortage of skills and labour is a growing concern for small to medium-size firms across the country.”
CFIB is also at the table talking to the industry minister about “softening the hard edges” of the new anti-spam legislation, he adds. “We had an excellent meeting with Industry Minister James Moore recently on this subject.”
Often the battles CFIB takes on can be quite protracted, Kelly says. “But we’ve outlasted many ministers and prime ministers as we continue to push for small business interests. Our motto is, we never give up and we never go away.”