“We knew the labour shortage had a very negative impact on leaders of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),” said by press release François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec at the CFIB. “They have to work more hours, and their employees as well. They’re forced to refuse contracts and business opportunities.”

Vincent adds that those SMEs could have benefited from these sums to recover, grow and revitalize their regions. For him, the labour shortage issue is very bad news for SME leaders.

CFIB’s assessment is based on data from a survey conducted last March. The results relating to the losses suffered by SMEs were calculated using the average total income of a Quebec SME, published by Statistics Canada for the year 2020, by sector of activity. Let’s note that the analysis only takes into account SMEs with revenues between $30,000 and $5 million, in order to have a conservative assessment.

All Sectors

In a report published last April, the CFIB revealed how the labour shortage was affecting all industries, and leading to an explosion of job vacancies, thus putting a lot of pressure on SMEs.

Today’s research note also highlights the economic impacts by activity sector.

The construction and professional and administrative services sectors are registering losses of more than $2 billion. SMEs in the lodging/food and retail sectors are experiencing losses of nearly a billion. In the wholesale trade and transportation sectors, these losses total $1.2 billion.

Measures

The lack of employees is cited by 86 per cent of small business owners in Quebec as the most difficult issue to overcome in 2022, just behind the increase in costs, mentioned by 87 per cent of them.

“The Government of Quebec has adopted several measures to support companies seeking employees, and has just made changes so that all SMEs have access to tax credits to attract workers,” explained Vincent in the press release. “That said, more actions are possible and necessary to help those businesses, especially in terms of taxation, where Quebec is the country’s champion.” (A.B.)

L’article Nearly $11 Billion Lost Due to Labour Shortage est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

More than 60 per cent of SMEs owners are working more hours than they should in order to make up for the lack of staff, while almost 50 per cent indicate that their employees have done the same.

To support Quebec entrepreneurs, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) meets with them to inform them about the programs and measures available to them. With the arrival of the provincial elections, CFIB is unveiling its new labour shortage awareness tool.

“It’s important to share the expectations of SMEs to political decision-makers, but also to act directly with our members,” said François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec at the CFIB, in a press release. That’s what we’ve always done and what we’ll continue to do. During the pandemic, the CFIB was there to support entrepreneurs without benchmarks who were going to hit a wall. Today, we intend to help SMEs facing a lack of employees. We’ll put energy into informing entrepreneurs across Quebec. By the end of the year, we’ll be meeting 40,000 leaders of Quebec SMEs and we’re aiming for 100,000 next year.”

The first consequence of the labour shortage for entrepreneurs is usually that they have to work more hours. Therefore, they have very little time, if any, to find out about the programs and measures in place.

To improve the awareness and use of business programs, the CFIB is asking political parties to commit to creating a Minister of SMEs and Regulatory Relief. Creating a continuum in government’s action for businesses would help to improve communication and the use of services. Finally, more needs to be done in terms of regulatory relief to help entrepreneurs save time. (A.B.)

L’article The CFIB Helps Quebec’s SMEs est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.