When it comes to evaluating the regulatory burden, cost burden, and general overall friendliness to small businesses, Windsor leaves much to be desired.
That's the conclusion one could draw from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business's new report card measuring the burden on small business in Canadian municipalities.
The federation evaluated 66 Canadian municipalities and gave Windsor a failing grade.
Windsor wasn't alone. The CFIB gave 39 municipalities an "F," while another 18 got a "D."
Three criteria were graded from one to ten.
Windsor received a 7.3 out of ten for cost burden, its highest score in the report card. For regulatory burden, the city received just one out of ten, and for small business friendliness, the final score was 6.5. It gave Windsor a total of 4.63 out of ten.
No municipality scored above a C+, and Red Deer, Alberta, got the top score of 7.33.
Windsor tied with Surrey, B.C. for 39th out of 66 municipalities.
The report card makes a number of recommendations to improve conditions for entrepreneurs and small business, including improving property tax fairness. The federation says small businesses are paying a disproportionately high property tax rate. It also recommends a digital permitting system and a dedicated red tape feedback portal.
The federation also calls on municipalities to implement broad-based property tax relief measures for small businesses, including relief when construction impacts the bottom line.
Cities can also reduce the regulatory burden by creating service standards and publicly listing timelines for permits and licenses. They could also reduce the burden by legislating a two for one policy where every new regulatory requirement, two are repealed, and appointing a red tape reduction commissioner.
