Wins for Canadian Business

Budget 2022

We were happy to see a number of policy wins for business in the Budget aligned with our pre-budget submission and/or policy resolutions passed at previous AGMs.

Some highlights:

• Funding of $875.2 million over five years, plus an ongoing $238.2 million per year to respond to cybersecurity threats. This goes towards the Communications Security Establishment as well as other departments and crown corporations.
• $1.5 billion over seven years for infrastructure investments to support critical mineral supply chains, plus a further $1.5 billion to support manufacturing, processing and recycling applications.
• Additional $450 million over five years for the National Trade Corridor Fund, with a rebranding of the fund to focus on supply chains.
• Launch a cannabis strategy table led by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) to identify ways to grow the sector.
• An investment tax credit of up to 30% for net-zero technologies, battery storage solutions and clean hydrogen.
• Amendments to the Employment Insurance Act to provide more support for worker re-training, including a commitment to modernizing Labour Market Transfer Agreements.
• Funding of $29.3 million over three years for a Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Trusted Employer Model that reduces red tape for regular users of the program. More details to be announced in 2023.
• A consultation will launch on Bill C-208 passed by the last Parliament to reduce loopholes in the execution of intergenerational business transfers.

Explore a more detailed list of Budget 2022 wins for business here.

Budget 2021
The Budget delivered on a number of our specific policy proposals outlined in our Roadmap to Recovery, pre-budget submission and policy resolutions.

Some highlights:

• Extension of business supports like CEWS and CERS for the hardest-hit sectors and small businesses.
• Creation of the Canada Recovery Hiring Program to help the hardest hit businesses hire staff when they are ready for recovery.
• Reskilling and upskilling to get Canadians back to work, as well as producing better data on labour market demand in individual communities and building talent pipelines based on employer needs.
• National leadership on reducing interprovincial trade barriers by collecting data, identifying barriers, and allocating federal transfers to provinces and territories to address these issues.
• Recapitalization of the National Trade Corridors fund to support trade-enabling infrastructure
• Support for SME technology adoption through capital expenditures and financing to improve Canadian productivity.

Explore a more detailed list of our Budget 2021 policy wins.

Some highlights:

• Working collaboratively with other business associations to advocate for a peaceful end to 2020 rail blockades.
• Increasing access to capital for businesses including the new Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP), and improvements to the Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP) and Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) during COVID-19 pandemic.
• Developing and welcoming the 75% Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and making sure any changes to the programs reflected the ongoing reality of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The creation of a Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) during the COVID-19 pandemic that flows directly to tenants, has no revenue caps, and is more generous than previous program for businesses required to shut down.
• Creating a simplified deduction for working-from-home expenses for employees and employers, likely eliminating 20 million pages of tax paperwork for Canadian employers in 2021.
• Deferring tax deadlines, audits and remittance payments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Amending the Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) regulations so that they do not apply to gaseous and solid fuels.
• Entry into force of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.
• The provision of an additional $750M investment in the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) to keep up with Canada’s accelerating broadband needs and meet the increased speed at which businesses, citizens and services have moved online since the pandemic.
• $2 billion flowing through the Safe Return to Class Fund, prioritizing childcare as an issue of national importance, commitment to accelerate the Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy, and intention to create an Action Plan for Women in the Economy to ensure a feminist, intersectional response to pandemic recovery.

Archive (Pre-2020)

Explore our previous policy wins for business.