The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) shared that 80 percent of small businesses across British Columbia opposed the provincial government’s intention to expand provincial sales tax (PST) to professional services such as accounting, security, and non-residential real estate services.
“With businesses having just endured their first full year of U.S. tariffs, these new taxes are pouring fuel on the fire,” said Ryan Mitton, CFIB’s legislative affairs director for BC, in a media release.
Per CFIB, among small businesses polled in its recent flash survey:
- 72 percent warned that they would likely pass on some or all new PST costs to customers
- 93 percent did not expect the 2026 budget to improve their business conditions
- Only two percent were “somewhat” confident that the budget would be helpful
- 91 percent were not optimistic that BC could decrease its deficit in the years ahead
“These numbers confirm that Budget 2026 will make life more expensive for British Columbians and make the province a less competitive place to do business,” Mitton said.
Kalith Nanayakkara, CFIB’s senior policy analyst for BC, emphasized that the province’s small businesses were already struggling with costs.
“The new PST on essential business services means higher bills for bookkeeping, security and property management,” Nanayakkara said in the media release. “Our members tell us those costs will be passed to customers and cascade through the economy.”
According to the flash survey results, the PST expansion would most significantly affect those relying on:
- accounting and bookkeeping services, with an 88 percent negative impact
- property management services, with a 61 percent adverse impact
- security services, with a 43 percent negative impact
- architectural, engineering, and geoscience services, with a 41 percent adverse impact
Coalition’s call
CFIB noted that it recently joined a coalition of business organizations across all the economy’s sectors to call on David Eby, BC premier, not to push through with the tax hike.
“The B.C. government is asking local entrepreneurs to pay more, get less and somehow grow the economy anyway,” Mitton said in CFIB’s media release. “Instead, Premier Eby must stop this tax and instead [rein] in spending.”
“If the government wants growth, it should stop taxing the very services businesses rely on to operate and invest,” Nanayakkara added.
The coalition asserted that the provincial government had a spending problem, not a revenue problem, given its projection of a historic $13.3 billion deficit.
CFIB’s flash survey covered 439 CFIB members who owned Canadian independent businesses, spanning all the province’s sectors and regions, and who responded by Mar. 2.