Paperweight Awards

Recipient: Federal Government of Canada

The federal government’s temporary GST/HST holiday, designed to boost retail sales, has instead caused administrative chaos, unexpected costs, and widespread confusion for small businesses.

Announced just before Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday—the busiest retail period of the year—the tax holiday left businesses scrambling to implement system changes with just two weeks’ notice. So far, the average business has spent a median of one full eight-hour work-day implementing the GST/HST tax break changes.

Reprogramming point-of-sale (POS) systems during the holiday season is not only time-consuming but costly, with a median estimated expense of $1,000. Adding to the burden, 66% of small businesses struggled to navigate a confusing, inconsistent, and arbitrary list of tax-exempt items, leaving many uncertain about how to apply the exemptions accurately. Toy and hobby store owners had to make judgement calls on things like adult versus child LEGO, while gift stores had to account for every item in gift baskets during their busiest times of year.

Instead of driving economic growth, businesses believe the tax holiday merely shifted consumer spending patterns to capitalize on the tax-free period, with two-thirds of small businesses anticipating delayed purchases or returns. Concurrently, 65% believe large corporations and online giants will reap far greater benefits than small businesses. By the halfway point of the tax holiday, only 5% of businesses reported an increase in sales.

Manufacturers and distributors, often unaware of their need to also adjust for the GST/HST holiday, compounded the administrative challenges for small businesses. The rushed rollout, unclear guidelines, and high costs have left many entrepreneurs feeling unsupported and frustrated.

Short-term fixes like the GST/HST holiday disproportionately impact small businesses, saddling them with unnecessary red tape and costs. To truly support Canada’s entrepreneurs, the government must focus on long-term policies that promote stability and growth instead of creating temporary, burdensome measures.

The fix: Provide affected businesses with a $1,000 credit in their GST/HST accounts to offset programming and administrative costs. Direct the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to waive taxes owed, penalties, and interest for good faith errors made during the rushed implementation period. Focus on meaningful, permanent tax changes, such as reversing the planned 19% increase in the carbon tax. 

Recipient: Municipality of Les Cedres

Children in Les Cedres, Quebec, are free to play in the neighbourhood streets as long as the municipal government has approved their paperwork. A 2023 by-law aimed at promoting safe ‘free-play’ among children and youths has taken an unusual approach to achieving its goal by mandating children to fill out and submit paperwork to the city.

The by-law requires the bright young minds of Les Cedres to first navigate an obstacle course of municipal red tape, before they are allowed to scale imaginary mountains in their neigbourhood streets. Every summer, children must fill out a form, indicate what street they would like to play on, obtain signatures from two-thirds of the adult residents living on the relevant street, and then submit their form to the recreation director, or risk getting fined up to $1,000.

However, the red tape nightmare does not end there. Upon receipt of the form, the recreation director must submit it to the municipal council for final approval. Once approved, the street will be deemed a free-play zone where children are allowed to play, but only between the hours of 9 am to 8 pm.

While CFIB acknowledges the need to establish safety procedures to ensure that children can play safely in the neighbourhood streets, there are alternative ways to achieve that without burdening young people with paperwork.

The fix: The municipality of Les Cedres should eliminate the application process and strategize on more effective ways to achieve street safety. 

Recipient: The City of Winnipeg

Accessing basic tax information has become a headache for businesses in Winnipeg. Unlike many other municipalities that provide property tax data online for free, the City of Winnipeg offers no easily accessible information. When businesses attempt to research their tax assessments and obligations, they are forced to jump through hoops just to find out how much they owe or where they stand.

Upon contacting the city's tax department, businesses are directed to an outdated and ineffective tax search portal. To make matters worse, accessing any information comes with a minimum fee of $28 per search—just for the privilege of knowing their own tax data. This pay-to-access system feels more like a toll gate than a service, creating unnecessary costs for businesses, especially small ones trying to manage tight budgets.

This is a prime example of the kind of red tape that wastes time and resources, erodes trust, and reduces transparency, adding to the frustrations of businesses simply trying to comply with their rising tax obligations.

The fix: The city should remove the fee for residents and businesses to retrieve their tax data, fix the registration link for the page, and explore options to make this information more easily findable and accessible.  

Recipient: Toronto City Council

A group of commercial dog walkers in Toronto have been handed on a leash of bureaucracy thanks to a recent decision by city council banning them from Ramsden Park’s off-leash area. This change came after a few residents complained about noise and parking- common features of life in a busy, high-density urban neighborhood.

The city had previously allowed these dog walkers to use the park freely, but this all changed in June 2024 when the council, decided to clamp down. Now, these small business owners, who are simply trying to walk dogs in their own neighbourhood, are suddenly facing the prospect of driving across town to find another park—assuming they can even find one with the same amenities. The ban, which took effect in September 2024 without any consultation from commercial dog walkers, has sparked a petition calling for designated hours (11 a.m.–3 p.m.) rather than an outright prohibition.

The council’s decision does not just impact the livelihood of the dog walkers, it creates unnecessary hurdles for the entire community. Instead of working towards a compromise, like setting specific hours or having designated areas, the city has imposed a blanket ban that threatens these small businesses’ survival. In a city that claims to support local entrepreneurs, this decision feels like an unnecessary, anti-entrepreneurial, and heavy-handed approach to what could have been a manageable problem. 

The fix: The city should reverse the ban and implement fair, clear guidelines, such as allowing commercial dog walkers during specific hours while also ensuring their involvement in future consultations.