Just moments ago Ontario announced another two weeks of lockdown on top of another two weeks on top of another two weeks, so I was just blasting the Ford government seconds ago.
Let me switch gears to the federal budget. There is a lot in the budget that we commend and endorse and some pretty serious gaps that I want to highlight. I did send, through the clerk in both French and English, a side deck of some data from CFIB, as I have done several times in the past to the finance committee, just to give the latest on where small businesses stand.
Right now, at this late stage, 14 months into the pandemic, only 51% of small and medium-sized firms across Canada are fully open. That's 51%. It's a pretty serious situation. If you look at the normal levels of staffing, fewer than 40% of businesses have attracted back all of their workers at this stage—in most cases because they do not need them as they are locked down. Most worrisome of all, only about a quarter of small firms are actually at normal or better levels of revenue than they were at this point before. I reiterate: Only a quarter of small businesses are at normal levels of revenue.
I want to share with you some of the measures that we did like in the budget. It did do several things. It allowed small business owners the deduction of up to $1.5 million. That's a very positive measure. We're quite pleased to see that the government did include that. It was a surprise, and a positive one for business owners across Canada. There's a reference to further progress on reducing credit card processing fees. That's also something that we're quite pleased with. That is good news.
Beyond that, we were pleased with the extension of the rent and wage subsidies until the fall. I will note though that there is great consternation right now about the planned reductions in the subsidy levels in the summer months. Here I want to remind this committee that the rent and wage subsidies automatically adjust depending on the level of business losses that a business is incurring, so the subsidies aren't there for businesses that are not in serious jeopardy. There are so many businesses, especially given that we've got ongoing lockdowns, renewed lockdowns and fresh lockdowns in Nova Scotia and Manitoba, they are really worried about the intended reduction in both the CEWS and CERS.
We did like the new Canada recovery hiring program. That new hiring incentive, we believe, is a real positive and we compliment the government for listening to the advice of my organization and others that have called for such a measure. We believe that it will be a way to help wean businesses off of the wage subsidy and allow that to be eliminated over time, but our overall advice is that governments really can't start to withdraw these subsidy programs until such time as governments themselves—federal, provincial and local—can tell Canadians that it's time to go back to work, time to return to the office and time to go dining and travelling, including with an open border.
One of the other measures that does worry us.... One thing I just do want to highlight is that for Liberal MPs on this committee, I urge you to get the message to Minister Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister, and to the Prime Minister that the government needs to make good on the latter's promise to new business owners in May 2020 to deliver support to them. That was something that I know the finance committee has talked about already, but it hasn't happened. It's a year into an emergency program and I believe it's deeply shameful that the government has not moved to allow new business owners to gain access to the wage and rent subsidies. That needs to be fixed.
The rent subsidy, while working well, also sadly excludes thousands of business owners, as it does not include those who have a holding company and an operating company. Even the previous CECRA program had a fix for that, and this one does not.
We've made a series of recommendations.
The other big worry that we have right now is the rising levels of debt on the books of small and medium-sized businesses. They have, on average, $170,000 in COVID-related debt to deal with. We urge the government to consider increasing the amount of the CEBA loan and increasing the percentage that is forgiven to 50%, and adding a forgivable percentage to the HASCAP program. These are some of the ways that we'll be able to lift some of the debt burden that businesses are facing and help them into the recovery.
There's lots more to unpack, but I'm happy to do that in response to the questions.
Thank you very much, Chair.