(Ottawa) Small and medium-sized business owners will finally receive their long-awaited carbon pricing rebates before the end of the year, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced.
The Department of Finance said Tuesday that the federal government would send more than $2.5 billion to about 600,000 Canadian businesses in December.
The payments will return part of the revenues from carbon pricing from 2019-2020 to 2023-2024 to small businesses in provinces where the federal fuel charge applies, which is not the case in Quebec.
The amount a company receives will depend on the province in which it operates and the number of workers it employs.
For example, an Ontario business with 10 employees can expect to receive $4,010, while a Saskatchewan business with 499 employees will receive $576,844.
“These are real and significant amounts of money. They will make a big difference for Canadian small businesses,” said Ms.me Freeland during a press conference Tuesday.
Reduced credit card transaction fees
The federal government also said a reduction in credit card transaction fees for small businesses would come into effect on October 19, saving them about $1 billion over five years.
It also announced a revised code of conduct for the payment card industry that will “help businesses compare prices and offers of different payment processing services and reduce complaint handling response time by almost 80%. %, or only 20 working days.”
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) welcomed the announcements, but called for the carbon tax to be abolished.
“While CFIB is pleased that the federal government has kept its commitment to return a portion of carbon tax revenues to small businesses, the vast majority of small businesses (83%) now oppose the carbon tax. carbon. CFIB will continue to call on all political parties to abolish the carbon tax as soon as possible,” the business group said in a statement.
Furthermore, the federal government announced the final list of aluminum and steel products manufactured in China that will be subject to a 25% tariff, which will come into effect on October 22.
The 100% tariff announced last month on Chinese-built electric vehicles took effect Tuesday.