Friday March 5, 2021 | BURNABY, BC
by Mary P Brooke, editor | Island Social Trends
Supporting small business during the pandemic toward recovery on the other side was the focus NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s media Zoom call this morning.
The NDP’s plan to “help save small business in this difficult time” includes asking for a cap of 1% on credit card fees that are charged to businesses when they conduct customer transactions, as well as a federal waiver of CPP & EI fees paid by employers for employees for a while so as to help people get hired again.
The NDP leader reiterated his party’s observation that the federal economic system has been “quick to help big business” and has been “ignoring the strengths of small business”. He added that “bankers go their (money) right away”.
“People don’t take pride in Walmart but in their corner store, small stores and local businesses,” Singh articulated.
Today Singh was joined by Coquitlam city councillor Bonita Zarrillo and a local small business owner Anna Teglasi with comments about how small businesses need this sort of support during the COVID-related economic recovery.
“Businesses have fallen and are falling through the cracks,” said Teglasi. As a travel agent, she focussed in particular on the tourism industry. She revealed some of the hidden economic burdens of the pandemic, such as operators in her industry having to pay back the commissions or fees that they earned when making bookings for trips that were later refunded to customers when trips were cancelled due to the pandemic. “Let that sink in,” she said, to emphasize the deeper impacts.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business does offer some programs of preferred rates to merchants on their credit card transaction processing.
