On the occasion of Entrepreneurship Week, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) published, on April 29, the results of a survey addressing this subject. Deploring that half of SME owners believe that entrepreneurship is not a valued career choice in Quebec, the CFIB is calling on the provincial government to address entrepreneurship more in schools.
If the CFIB had welcomed the submission of the 2022-2025 Quebec Entrepreneurship Plan and its nine measures to improve the support offered to entrepreneurs and support for takeovers, 92% of SME directors surveyed by the CFIB are of the opinion that entrepreneurship should be part of the school system’s curricula in order to familiarize young people with this career path.
Also, 91% of SME owners think that the government should provide more support to entrepreneurs in their succession planning (for example, financial assistance for business transfers);
“Even if the government is taking the right path with its Quebec Entrepreneurship Plan, it seems that the challenge it will face is gigantic. The SME owners surveyed on the subject are unanimous: the culture of entrepreneurship must be reinforced, valued, and even taught at school. Half of them believe that this career choice is not developed enough in Quebec. There is still work to be done on this essential subject,” said François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec at the CFIB.
At the same time, the group once again asked Quebec “to stop putting obstacles in the way of Quebec SMEs, especially with regard to the most disadvantageous taxation in the province.” This is an obstacle to takeover, according to the CFIB.
“To tackle the barriers and obstacles to entrepreneurship head-on, it must be interesting to start a business. And here, we remain the only province that taxes its smallest service and construction companies like multinationals, an additional difference of 259%! In addition, payroll taxes remain the highest in the country, 30% higher than the Canadian average. Let’s stop looking at 12:14 p.m. to create new programs and therefore start creating a better base with an inviting tax environment for our small businesses and for small start-ups,” argued François Vincent.
To carry out this release, the CFIB relied on the final results of its Your Voice survey, an omnibus survey conducted online from April 4 to 22. The results are based on the responses of 429 CFIB members who own SMEs and come from all sectors and all regions of Quebec. For comparison, a probability sample with the same number of respondents would have a margin of error of +/- 4.7%, 19 times out of 20.
