One year after Prime Minister’s promise, new businesses are still shut out of federal support programs

“A full year after the Prime Minister promised small firms government would fix the problem for new business owners, they have not been able to receive a nickel of support. Some have been fully shut down by provincial orders for more than 300 days. As several provincial governments have found solutions to allow newer firms to access their more limited support programs, it is ridiculous that the federal government hasn’t delivered on its promise.”

New firms have been able to access support programs in many provinces, but that money is not enough to get them through the pandemic.

CFIB has outlined several approaches the federal government can take to provide support to new businesses in a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, including:

- Waive the requirement for an active CRA Business Number on the first day of each COVID-19 relief program or allow a business to apply for one.

- As new firms are not able to determine their revenue loss compared to the same month in 2019 or January/february 2020, allow them to use provincial average revenue loss numbers by sector OR determine revenue comparisons based on an average sales revenue over a few recent months, as Saskatchewan has implemented.

- Allow new businesses that opened after March 1, 2020, to demonstrate a month-over-month revenue reduction when comparing a month between April 2020 and April 2021 to any month between November 2020 and April 2021.

- Allow new businesses to compare month-over-month revenues to the previous month (prior to increased restrictions).

“New businesses will be vital to Canada’s economic recovery, as they create new jobs and replace the businesses that we have lost. They face the same lockdowns as other businesses, and are often more fragile because they don’t yet have a list of loyal customers or any reserves after starting operations,” added Jonathan Alward, CFIB’S director, prairie region. “We urge the federal government to deliver on the promise made a year ago and provide new businesses with the support they need.”

Small business owners can now sign CFIB’S petition (https://initiative.cfib-fcei.ca/newbusinesspetition/) calling on the government to provide support to new firms.