Local business community reacts to new provincial tax relief

Will Ontario’s plan to defer select taxes for the next six months help local businesses? CTV’s Heather Senoran finds out.

Waterloo Region’s business community is reacting to the province’s plan to give businesses a six-month deferral on some taxes.

The provincial government announced the plan this morning in a bid to soften the blow of U.S President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Select provincially-administered taxes, including the Beer Wine and Spirits Tax and Gasoline Tax, will be deferred retroactively from April 1, 2025, to Oct. 1, 2025.

“In such unprecedented, unpredictable times, any aid that we can get in terms of any sort of tax relief from the provincial government can only be helpful,” Tim Borys, co-owner of Lancaster Smokehouse in Kitchener, said.

Many in the hospitality industry have admitted to being on edge during the recent economic uncertainty.

“When places go through economically difficult times, one of the first things and the easiest things to cut out is luxury spending and that would be considered restaurants, for example,” Borys said.

But for their restaurant, between catering and dine-in sales, non-food sales are only about 10 per cent of their bottom line. Borys admitted the new help won’t be a drastic change.

“For our size, for our volume, it’s good, it’s helpful. I’m glad we’re getting it. But it wouldn’t have made or broke us,” he said.

Smaller businesses may stand to benefit more.

In Uptown Waterloo there are about 450 businesses.

“They don’t have to make drastic decisions to terminate/fire staff. All of that also helps with overall stability,” said Uptown Waterloo BIA’s Executive Director Jeyas Balaskanthan.

The BIA said it knows businesses will be grateful for any help they can get.

“And when you look at uptown and all of the downtown core areas, these are the cultural hubs, these are the innovation hubs. This is where all the mom-and-pop shop small businesses thrive. This creates a vibrancy for the community. It’s really important that we keep it going. And this now is going to give definitely a hand-up for our business owners,” said Balaskanthan.

Balaskanthan said this gives businesses some extra time to plan ahead and prepare for any future economic curveballs on the way.