TORONTO, Oct. 29, 2025 /CNW/ - A new report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) shows that despite rapid federal public service growth, small businesses are getting "acceptable" service at best and are often facing slow and inconsistent responses from key government departments.
"Over the past decade the public service has ballooned by 36%, far outpacing both population and private sector job growth, yet on average only 16% of SMEs rate the service as good," said Michelle Auger, CFIB's director of trade and marketplace competitiveness and lead author of the report. "We're seeing government get bigger but there's been no clear payoff."
CFIB analyzed small business interactions with the five most dealt with federal departments: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Statistics Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Among those who interacted with CRA, only 18% felt they received "good" quality service, and just 15% rated the timeliness of responses as good. Small businesses were most unhappy with IRCC, while CBSA ranked second to last. Those who interacted with ESDC and Statistics Canada had more mixed reviews.
Small business owners reported the lack of accessible information, rigid rules and processes, slow response times, and technical issues, as major challenges when interacting with government departments.
As the federal government prepares the fall budget and reviews its spending, CFIB recommends:
- Publishing transparent and ambitious service standards across all departments
- Implementing hiring limits based on population or GDP
- Speeding up regulatory reforms, such as adopting a "two-for-one" rule that applies to all regulations, legislation and policies
- Leveraging technology to improve customer service
- Committing to fiscal prudence to limit the growth of the bureaucracy
"Small business owners are not measuring government's success by how many people they're hiring. It's about how quickly they're picking up the phone, how consistently they're resolving issues and how clearly they're sharing information. Too many departments are not delivering the results expected for the price we pay. Ottawa needs to reduce the size and costs of bureaucracy and focus on improving service and response times. Small businesses deserve better, and they expect the public sector to do better," said Jasmin Guenette, CFIB's vice-president of national affairs.
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada's largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 100,000 members across every industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners' chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.
SOURCE Canadian Federation of Independent Business
For media enquiries or interviews, please contact: Dariya Baiguzhiyeva, CFIB, 647-464-2814, [email protected]
Share this article