Good morning, Honourable Chair, vice-chairs and members of this committee.
It's my privilege today to represent the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce and deliver this message on behalf of our nearly 700 members from across Abbotsford's diverse business community.
In our community, we're grateful to live and work on the traditional territory of the Halq'emeylem-speaking people, the Sto:lo people, and today I am pleased to be a guest on the traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people.
Our members include businesses of all sizes, from home-based operators to large-scale manufacturers. They are facing many of the same challenges, which are directly impacted by the loss of economic competitiveness in Canada and the rising cost of doing business, making it increasingly difficult not only to grow but to, in some cases, continue to operate.
Today, government has its foot on the pedal of inflation, and we see the knock-on effects at the community level with the rising commercial rents and lease rates, alongside higher interest rates that result in reduced profitability, felt most acutely by the small and medium-sized business owners who are struggling with affordability on their own to maintain their operations.
Ottawa has an opportunity to make a substantial impact to relieve the strains on small businesses while improving the baseline of Canada's economy. Some of these measures could include removing internal barriers to trade, simplifying the tax code and reducing the barriers that prevent the private sector from capitalizing on the strategic economic advantages that we have in this country and in the community of Abbotsford.
Today, the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce is recommending five key areas for action in budget 2024.
First, lower the cost of doing business, specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises. The cost of running a business in Canada continues to climb, making it very difficult for businesses to succeed and to grow.
We call on the government to avoid imposing additional taxes on businesses. For example, the upcoming increase of EI premiums in 2024 will be felt by every single employer in the country. This, paired with the numerous other costs being added by other levels of government—such as increased property taxes in most municipalities, carbon taxes that affect British Columbia's business owners differently and interest-rate increases—means that businesses are being squeezed from nearly every direction.
Economic headwinds are still present, and businesses haven't fully recovered from the impacts of the pandemic. One key issue remains: the upcoming CEBA loan repayment deadline. In our view, now is not the time to recall the loans for struggling businesses, and we strongly urge the government to give business owners more time by extending the repayment deadline. What we've advocated for is the end of 2025.
Our second item is around building resilient and trade-enabling infrastructure. Reliable connections with our trading partners across the province, country and globe are required for businesses in British Columbia to reach their potential. That, in our community, includes flood mitigation infrastructure for the Fraser Valley, home to some of Canada's most productive agricultural land, which was impacted by the devastating floods only two years ago, and also the expansion of regional trade corridors, like Highway 1 through Abbotsford. Ensuring that we have resilient infrastructure in place to meet the demands of today and the future is critical to the long-term success of businesses.
The third is around fostering healthy communities. The health of our community is a direct function of the health of the businesses that operate within it. If businesses are prospering, the local economy will too. Today, we see how policies—for example, bail reform for repeat offenders alongside an extremely challenging opioid crisis—have impacted the job creators of our communities. For many small businesses in the community of Abbotsford, this has become what some have described as a virtual crime tax, where businesses increasingly need to account for regular property damage and vandalism clean-up, which further adds to their costs of doing business.
The fourth is around addressing labour challenges. One of the most critical issues that we face as a province and in our community is ensuring that we have the people we need with the training required to meet our needs today and into the future. We also need to ensure that communities are equipped with the necessary funding from the government for infrastructure that will support the growth in population, as well as the services to ensure the success of newcomers within their chosen communities.
The last is around incenting innovation. Empowering companies to do more with the same resources, or even less, is one way to help businesses grow and succeed. We want to foster the success of new industries such as agriculture technology, which has a natural home in Abbotsford, Canada's agriculture capital. In fact, Abbotsford's farmers are driving the future of food security for the nation, and the government can play a key role in investing in the ecosystem that supports that innovation.
I hope this helps to provide some additional insight into the challenges facing small businesses and medium-sized enterprises today.
Thank you so much.