{"id":25415,"date":"2026-09-25T16:10:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insurance-canada.ca\/?p=86786"},"modified":"2026-09-25T16:10:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:10:45","slug":"trade-war-puts-more-than-50000-canadian-small-businesses-at-risk-cfib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2026\/09\/25\/trade-war-puts-more-than-50000-canadian-small-businesses-at-risk-cfib\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade war puts more than 50,000 Canadian small businesses at risk: CFIB"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Toronto, ON (Sept. 10, 2026) \u2013 <span id=\"hs_cos_wrapper_post_body\" class=\"hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field hs_cos_wrapper_type_rich_text\" data-hs-cos-general-type=\"meta_field\" data-hs-cos-type=\"rich_text\">New estimates from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business find that 53,112 businesses are directly impacted by either U.S. tariffs, Canadian counter-tariffs, or both<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Of that total, 13,160 are exporters, while 45,414 are importers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile government has made a few important and welcome changes to the main tariff supports, the programs continue to exclude about half of the small business community,\u201d said Corinne Pohlmann, CFIB executive vice-president, advocacy. \u201cWe have been telling government that the counter-tariffs would have a far broader impact than the U.S. tariffs. Programs that only help a few thousand businesses are unacceptable when tens of thousands need support. This week\u2019s&nbsp;announcement that some Canadian goods will be outright banned from US import at the end of the month only underscores the need to get supports right ASAP.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CFIB is proposing three important measures:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A dedicated Small Business Tariff Relief (SBTR) program, where impacted exporters and importers who can provide direct evidence they paid the tariffs directly, or adjusted prices to absorb part or all of the tariff, would be eligible to receive initial tariff relief up to $70,000 CAD.<\/li>\n<li>An SME Desk for Tariff Remissions to speed up decisions on eliminating Canadian retaliatory tariffs if there are major negative impacts on the industry or if alternatives to the U.S. product are not readily available.<\/li>\n<li>Immediate tax relief for all small businesses in the form of a Small Business Corporate Tax Rate cut from 9% to 6%, retroactive to January 1, 2026, and an increase to the Small Business Deduction threshold from $500,000 to $700,000 with future indexation to inflation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe Regional Tariff Response Initiative Programs have standardized eligibility criteria and reduced their access thresholds down to $1 million, but it doesn\u2019t go far enough,\u201d Pohlmann added. \u201cA $1-million threshold will still exclude a huge number of businesses. We need a simple, direct support program to help small businesses on the U.S. and Canadian tariff lists in addition to broad-based tax relief to help all small firms that will be hurt by the trade war.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"smallhead\"><b>About CFIB<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span id=\"hs_cos_wrapper_post_body\" class=\"hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field hs_cos_wrapper_type_rich_text\" data-hs-cos-general-type=\"meta_field\" data-hs-cos-type=\"rich_text\">The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada\u2019s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 103,000 members across every industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners\u2019 chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings<\/span>. Learn more at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfib-fcei.ca\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">cfib.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"referencetext\"><em>Source: Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)<\/em><\/p>\n<p> Tags: <a href=\"https:\/\/insurance-canada.ca\/tag\/cfib\/\" rel=\"tag\">Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/insurance-canada.ca\/tag\/market-dynamics\/\" rel=\"tag\">market dynamics<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/insurance-canada.ca\/tag\/small-business\/\" rel=\"tag\">small business<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toronto, ON (Sept. 10, 2026) \u2013 New estimates from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business find that 53,112 businesses are directly impacted by either U.S. tariffs, Canadian counter-tariffs, or both. Of that total, 13,160&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1],"class_list":["post-25415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}