{"id":88127,"date":"2025-08-22T07:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T07:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88127\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T07:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T07:03:14","slug":"trade-war-could-kill-1-in-5-b-c-small-businesses-within-6-months-cfib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88127\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade war could kill 1 in 5 B.C. small businesses within 6 months: CFIB"},"content":{"rendered":"

One in five small businesses in British Columbia could go under within six months, without help or a speedy resolution to Canada\u2019s ongoing trade war<\/a>, according to an industry group.<\/p>\n

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The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) says a recent survey of its members has concluded small businesses are being disproportionately hammered by U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum and Canada\u2019s own retaliatory tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bad deal is the worst case scenario, but the next worst thing is the uncertainty,\u201d said Ryan Mitton, CFIB director of legislative affairs for B.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s cause for concern because if governments don\u2019t act fast to provide immediate relief, then we\u2019re going to start seeing layoffs or small business closures.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s a concern for Megan Nakazawa, owner of Local Space in Chilliwack.<\/p>\n

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Even though her business sells only Canadian products, she says her company is already feeling the consumer chill, and closed its Langley location several months ago.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEvery day there is an announcement of a small business just like mine that is closing its doors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are just scared of what the next couple of years are going to be like and they are just not spending what they used to spend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitton said eight in 10 B.C. businesses are exposed to the U.S. for trade in some way, and more than half (56 per cent) of B.C. businesses are exposed to U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs or Canada\u2019s own tariffs on U.S. goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result of tariffs and counter tariffs is raising prices for everyone, we\u2019re seeing increased costs, reduced profits, and small businesses are having to completely change their supply chains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re confused when it comes to orders, in fact, one in three small businesses have had orders pause lately as a result of the impacts of not just U.S. tariffs, but counter tariffs as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On top of that, a quarter are being affected by U.S. duties on softwood lumber, according to the CFIB data.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat includes small businesses, restaurants in lumber communities, forestry communities that work on serving those workers, providing supplies, or even contracting with forestry operations themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While coming to a clear and stable agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump is a riddle no country has yet solved, Mitton said there are actions provincial and federal governments can take to give small businesses some breathing room.<\/p>\n

At the top of the list is ensuring all revenue from Canadian counter-tariffs is returned to domestic businesses being hurt by the trade war.<\/p>\n

The group is also calling for action to cut the cost of doing business and reduce taxes, including temporarily cutting the small business tax rate to zero or offering a tariff rebate similar to the former carbon tax rebate.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an approach Nakazawa would support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government puts a lot of Band-Aids on situations and there isn\u2019t a lot of actual help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay a lot in taxes, a lot more than these big corporations are paying when you look at percentages.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One in five small businesses in British Columbia could go under within six months, without help or a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,1689],"class_list":["post-88127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-trade-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}