THUNDER BAY – Framed as spending less to invest more to grow Canada’s economy, the president of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, says the Carney government’s 2025-26 budget is focused more attracting business with “deeper pockets” than supporting small business.
“Small businesses, as we know, don’t have a lot of money. So what small businesses are looking for is a reduction of their costs, which costs the government money. Whereas what the government is saying is: we need larger businesses to put their money in the game and let’s invest in the economy. And then that will have a positive impact on all of the businesses, including small businesses in the community, because you’ll see that economic generation,” Robinson told Newswatch.
She said the 406-page document details billions of investments meant to spur growth and productivity during trade uncertainty and a slowing economy.
“Certainly, we are hearing from small businesses that they are very challenged, and unfortunately, a lot of the initiatives that have been introduced so far really don’t apply to small, small businesses. If you’ve got less than five employees or if you’re in a retail sector, a lot of those programs they’re not eligible,” Robinson said.
“So those are the businesses that we’re hearing from as to what’s in it for me, which is where we heard repeatedly, reduce the small business taxes. Like that would be a break for all small businesses, but we didn’t see that in this budget, so it’s something we’ll continue to be pushing for moving forward.”
She also said small businesses feel that the tax system is “too complicated” and they would have liked to see the tax system simplified.
She noted that the budget has a “productivity super-deduction,” a set of enhanced tax incentives which cover all new capital investments, allowing businesses to write off a larger share of the cost right away.
For example, companies can write off machinery, “which could potentially make businesses actually spend on things right away that they were maybe not planning to,” she said.
She named a few budget items that might be of particular interest locally, including a biofuel production incentive of $372 million over two years, starting in 2026-27.
Robinson said that this incentive could help Ontario’s forestry sector by teasing more biofuel development.
New trade diversification corridors fund could potentially provide some additional support for the Thunder Bay Port, she said.
The budget provides $5 billion over seven years into the trade diversification corridors fund, which municipalities will be eligible for.
Robinson said the port can “invest in itself to become even bigger and better to support not only to support that trade that goes through our port.”
She pointed out that the $2 billion over five years new critical minerals sovereign fund will help expand the different types of critical minerals that will be eligible for the critical minerals tax credits.
“We know there are a couple of dozen mines that are trying to move forward. So, any programs that the government might be providing to help either allow more exploration or actually move things forward quickly, to incentivize that development by helping to make it more economical, those are all things that are positives,” Robinson said.
However, she pointed to the budget cuts to temporary foreign workers as a sign of concern for the region.
Carney’s government proposed plan is to nearly halve the number of new temporary residents accepted, from a target of 673,650 this year to 385,000 in 2026.
“We know that temporary foreign workers currently are filling a lot of positions because we don’t have non-foreign workers that are available for some of those positions, low skilled positions, etc. And so its very concerned about what that could mean here,” said Robinson.
“Although there was a caveat right in the budget that said that the government does recognize that temporary foreign workers are vital to rural areas for their workforce. So digging into that a little bit more, trying to figure out, will rural and remote communities like those of us here in Northwestern Ontario potentially have a little bit more support than maybe some of the large areas? So, we’ll see where that goes.”
