This becomes even more worrisome as we look ahead to the further rounds of carbon tax increases that we're facing.
Our main piece of advice to governments when businesses—or any Canadian, for that matter—is struggling is not to make the problem worse. Sadly, we've seen it right throughout the pandemic. Canadian pension plan premiums have continued to increase. EI premiums just went up at the beginning of this year. Carbon taxes went up. The liquor tax was, fortunately, kept in a more reasonable fashion.
With these large increases that are coming and none of it coming back in the form of rebates, it's deeply worrisome where small businesses are going to find the money to continue to kick into this. It's essentially a wealth transfer from independent businesses, who have been among the groups hardest hit by pandemic-related restrictions. It's a wealth transfer from them to consumers all through the system of government.
About half of our members oppose the carbon tax, full stop. Even the almost one-third of our members who support carbon taxation do not like the way that the federal carbon backstop is designed. If we're going to keep it, then we have to find a mechanism that's fair to all Canadians who are paying into it.