By Tegan Schmidt
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is offering to help city council develop a plan to become more small business friendly, after its recent survey ranked Ottawa as the third worst municipality in which to operate a small business.
The federation made several suggestions to city council when they presented the survey, which included negotiating the city budget before wage contracts are locked in, reducing the paper burden on small businesses and implementing a small business property tax threshold.
“CFIB has offered to help, and is committed to working with them on this…this is a new council, and it can only get better from here,” says Garth Whyte, executive vice-president of CFIB.
Gloucester-South Nepean Ward Coun. Steve Desroches, vice-chair of the corporate services committee says that he has already arranged a meeting with Whyte to get more feedback on what Ottawa should being doing to improve the situation for small businesses.
“I think that we can do better at city hall,” says Desroches. “I’m looking forward to working on this with the other councillors.”
Ottawa small business owners have also responded to the survey and are agreeing with the results.
“I’m not surprised, to tell you the truth,” says Lori Mellor, executive director of the Preston Street Business Improvement Association.
She says Ottawa needs to make some significant changes to make things less confusing for small business owners.
“There is a lot of bureaucracy and roadblocks … and as a business owner in Ottawa you are also paying really high business taxes,” says Mellor.
According to Mellor, some business owners have become so frustrated with Ottawa’s system that they will go as far as Hull to operate their business instead of staying in Ottawa.
Mellor says she would like to see a more centralized system for small business owners, one that didn’t have them running around to different departments.
Rob Ryan, who helps manage the Preston Fish Market, owned by his mother, says he has been surprised by all the fees and regulations imposed by the city.
“I’d like a lot more tax breaks for small corporations,” he says. “I found out how much it costs to renew your business license and it’s a lot of money just for a little sticker.”
It costs the Preston Fish Market $195 to renew their business license each year, but the cost varies with different types of businesses.
“They’ve got to start thinking about the small businesses, because we’re up against a lot of competition,” says Ryan.
He says even though big businesses already have many advantages, they can’t provide the personalized service that small businesses can.
Tony Gumari, who has worked at the Compiano Bakery on Preston Street since it opened in 2000, says that while he doesn’t want tax breaks for small businesses, Ottawa needs to remember that small businesses bring flavour and character to the city. He says he hasn’t found Ottawa a bad city to do business in, but there are always things that can be improved.
“Big business doesn’t bring anything to the city; it’s the small businesses that are important.”
Desroches says small businesses will be seeing changes soon. There is already a task force looking at reducing the amount of red tape that businesses must deal with.
“We want to make it easier to do business with the city government,” says Desroches.