TORONTO, March 28, 2024 /CNW/ - Small business owners will
not be laughing when the federal carbon tax jumps by 23% to
$80 per tonne on April 1, says the Canadian Federation of
Independent Business (CFIB).
"The giant hike in carbon taxes further highlights how unfair
this tax is for small businesses," said Dan Kelly CFIB president.
While over half (56%) of small firms will be forced to raise prices
to accommodate the tax, 45% report they will need to freeze or
reduce wages (45%) and a full third (33%) say it will reduce their
ability to invest in environmental initiatives. "The first thing
Ottawa must do is freeze the
upcoming tax hike. The whole carbon tax system has become a shell
game, and sadly, small firms are unfairly punished by it."
"Making the problem worse is the fact that Ottawa has not delivered on promises to return
a portion of carbon tax revenues to small businesses," Kelly said.
"Ottawa is sitting on $2.5 billion in carbon tax rebates intended for
small firms, calling into question the government's claim that the
tax is revenue neutral."
CFIB was pleased to hear Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland say at a recent committee
meeting that small businesses will soon have some good news on the
billions owed to them since 2019. "This can't come soon enough,"
Kelly added.
CFIB estimates that small firms in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the provinces under the federal
carbon backstop since 2019, could receive a one-time rebate between
$2,600 and nearly $7,000. In the four Atlantic provinces that came
under the carbon tax in July 2023,
rebates would be between $630 and
$1,060.
CFIB continues to push for fairness for small businesses and
urges the government to:
- Drop the planned carbon tax hike on April 1.
- Immediately return the $2.5
billion owed to all small businesses since 2019.
- Scrap the idea of returning the SME allocation only to
"emissions-intensive, trade-exposed" businesses in favour of a
simple rebate for all SMEs.
- Reverse the plan to reduce the SME share of carbon tax revenue
from 9% to 5% in 2024 with annual rebates rising to the share of
the tax paid by SMEs.
- Pass Bill C-234 as originally proposed to exempt natural gas
and propane used for on-farm activities, including grain drying and
heating farm buildings.
- Exempt all heating fuels, including natural gas.
"Ottawa has an opportunity to
right the wrong and announce concrete plans to return the promised
$2.5 billion to all small businesses,
not just certain sectors," said Jasmin
Guenette, CFIB's vice-president of national affairs. "We
hope the government listens to small business concerns and will
announce details of a plan to keep its promise in the upcoming
budget."
Small businesses can add their voice to CFIB's fight for carbon
tax fairness by signing CFIB's petition.
Methodology
Final survey results for the Environment Survey 2022, conducted
from August 15 – September 20, 2022, and based on a sample of
4,364 CFIB members. For comparison purposes, a probability
sample with the same number of respondents would have a margin of
error of +/-1.5%, 19 times out of 20.
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is
Canada's largest association of
small and medium-sized businesses with 97,000 members across every
industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business
owners' chances of success by driving policy change at all levels
of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating
exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.
SOURCE Canadian Federation of Independent Business