Toronto, October 17, 2024 – The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) today released its top three small business priorities for the Ontario legislature’s Fall sitting that begins next week.
• Ensure that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) returns another round of surplus rebate funds to eligible Ontario employers.
“We praised the government in 2021 for making Ontario the first province in Canada to legislate the return of WSIB surplus funds to employers,” said Julie Kwiecinski, CFIB’s director of provincial affairs for Ontario. “Our members wholeheartedly welcomed receiving their share of the province’s first WSIB surplus rebates in April 2022.”
“Now is the right time to return more WSIB surplus funds to employers because the WSIB is again significantly over-funded with the money from businesses that pay into it,” added Kwiecinski. “When the WSIB distributed the first surplus rebates totaling $1.2 billion, its funding level was 121.2% and it had $6.5 billion in reserve. Right now, the WSIB is in an even stronger financial position with a funding level of 121.5% and reserves of $7.1 billion.”
• Small Business Tax Rate (SBTR): Increase the threshold for accessing the SBTR and index it to inflation annually, and gradually reduce the SBTR to 0%.
“Government could move quickly on these long-standing CFIB asks by passing Private Member’s Bill 195, which would reduce the Small Business Tax Rate from 3.2-1.6% and elevate its threshold from $500,000-$600,000,” said Ryan Mallough, CFIB’s vice president of legislative affairs for Ontario. "Cutting the SBTR in half would save eligible Ontario small businesses up to $8,000 per year, and implementing both Bill 195 measures would save them up to $9,900 per year.”
“Ontario’s Small Business Tax Rate is still the highest in the country – tied with Quebec – and its threshold has been stuck at the same amount for 17 years,” added Mallough. “We appreciate that the government lowered the SBTR from 3.5-3.2% on January 1, 2020. However, this decrease happened right before the pandemic, and many other unexpected challenges have cropped up since then, leaving Ontario small business owners with significant cost, inflationary and debt pressures.”
• Make the provincial gasoline and fuel tax cuts permanent.
“The federal carbon tax keeps increasing the already high costs of gas and fuel, putting significantly more pressure on the cost of doing business,” said Kwiecinski. “By making its popular gas and fuel tax cuts permanent, the Ontario government would give small businesses much-needed cost relief certainty.”
CFIB’s Fall legislative priorities are strongly supported by small businesses. In an August 2024 CFIB survey, 94% of CFIB members registered with the WSIB said that the WSIB should return surplus funds to eligible Ontario employers this year; 84% of CFIB members that qualify for the Small Business Tax Rate said that the province should lower the SBTR and increase its threshold, and 88% said that the Ontario government should make its gasoline and fuel tax cuts permanent.
For media inquiries or interviews, please contact:
Dariya Baiguzhiyeva, CFIB
647-464-2814
public.affairs@cfib.ca
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, including 38,000 in Ontario. 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.
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