Individually, they may be small, but together, small- and medium-sized businesses make up a big part of the Manitoba economy, says Elliot Sims, Manitoba affairs director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
Small businesses – defined by Statistics Canada as having 100 employees or fewer – and medium-sized enterprises – those with between 100 and 500 employees – represent more than 98 per cent of Manitoba’s 80,000 businesses, with a large majority – about 70 per cent – employing fewer than 20 employees.
“We’re talking about the smallest of the small businesses,” said Sims, who spoke with the Thompson Citizen the day after giving a speech to the Thompson Chamber of Commerce.
Nevertheless, they play a big role in the economy, as there are only 60 businesses with more than 500 employees in Manitoba and the ones below that threshold generate about a quarter of the provincial GDP.
The CFIB has 109,000 members nationwide, including 4,800 in Manitoba and 50 in Thompson. Each of those members pays a membership fee to the organization, which Sims described as non-profit and non-partisan, in exchange for the services it provides, one of which is communicating the concerns of small business to governments, particularly the provincial and municipal levels, something that many small businesses can’t effectively do themselves.
“You don’t have time to run down to Winnipeg,” said Sims.
The CFIB is particularly concerned with engaging municipal governments, whose spending often outstrips sustainability, which the CFIB defines as inflation plus population growth.
“It’s reasonable to up spending to account for inflation,” he said, noting that many municipalities, including Thompson, see spending rise faster than that. “Municipalities have a really bad track record when it comes to spending.”
Positions taken by the CFIB are voted on by members in a one-member, one-vote survey system, and the organization also provides other services to members like counsellors to answer questions about government regulations, put them in touch with the relevant people in government and help them deal with red tape.
Small businesses provide many services that benefit the economy as a whole – spending $18 billion a year on training in Canada, including $12 billion on informal training – which often doesn’t pay off as well as it should when larger businesses or government departments siphon off those now-trained employees.
“Governments don’t always recognize the value of informal training. The only way you learn some of these things … is by learning from your co-workers on the job,” said Sims, adding that small business owners also contribute to the quality of life in their communities. “They have their own flair and they do give back to the community.”
What’s more, under the proper conditions, small- and medium-sized businesses, which are often among the most innovative, can grow into big ones. Sims points out that one of CFIB’s former members expanded to become one of Canada’s best known companies: Research in Motion, the makers of the BlackBerry.
