It’s a double whammy that could break the bank for almost half of Canada’s small businesses.
A survey of small business owners conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business or CFIB discovered one-in-five believe they won’t last six months without some big changes and another 38-percent said they wouldn’t survive for a year.
The issue at hand is tariffs imposed by the US and they want Ottawa to pass along the money the federal treasury has collected in counter-tariffs to offset the impact of the trade war.
These small businesses are being hit on two sides. First is that they are facing higher input costs because of the tariffs as well as the new American move to eliminate an exemption for low value items shipped by the postal service. The second hit is on the top line as their customers – who are also feeling the pinch of tariffs – are not buying as much.
On top of the cash crunch, small business owners are also being squeezed by supply chain interruptions and investment decisions throughout the system being postponed.
