The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is ready to roll up their sleeves and start working with newly-elected Premier John Horgan and his cabinet.
Making the tax system more fair for small business owners should be a top priority.
“Both property taxes and of course fixing the PST which is a constant source of major headaches for a lot of entrepreneurs,” says Richard Truscott, Alberta, and BC vice-president.
The CFIB says small business owners in BC are welcoming the NDP-Green government led by Premier John Horgan with open arms.
However, the lack of a Small Business Minister in the cabinet is the lone concern at this point Truscott says.
“That was something that we saw in the previous cabinet, that position has been eliminated so we’ll be looking directly to Horgan and some of his key ministers in economic roles in the cabinet to play that champion, that role of the champion within the cabinet.”
According to Truscott the Christy Clark Liberals did well in reducing red tape for small business owners but fell short on several key issues.
“Things like hiking the Carbon Tax, the Multi Materials Recycling Corporation, there are some things that have been irritants for small businesses that we are hoping to get from the new NDP government on but certainly we were on the right path with the previous government.”
CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 109,000 members, including 10,000 in BC.