All four of P.E.I.’s political parties are struggling to gain traction with small business owners in the province.
A poll conducted last week by The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) shows an overwhelming amount of small businesses are not seeing themselves or priorities reflected amongst the four provincial party platforms.
Erin McGrath-Gaudet, CFIB director in P.E.I., said the two top priorities that members are looking for are how the parties plan to get the province’s finances under control and how they plan to help develop the economy.
However, 70 per cent of those polled responded “no” when asked if they were confident that the parties have or will have credible plans to develop the local economy.
“If small business owners aren’t confident in the economic development platforms being released it’s a big concern. The bulk of our economy is based on small companies so it’s pretty hard to grow the economy without them,” she said.
McGrath-Gaudet said there was also expressed concern over the lack of details about how each party would balance the budget.
“We’ve heard a lot about economic growth being necessary to fix our financial situation but that’s largely out of government’s control. There have been vague references to finding savings or reducing waste, but governments always struggle to achieve those savings,” she said. “The only other avenues end up being deficits or tax increases and Islanders have already seen their fair share of both.”
The CFIB’s first of two election polls was conducted via its online, controlled-access portal between April 20 and April 23, 2015.
Full results can be found at www.cfib.ca/peivotes2015.
As a non-partisan organization, the CFIB did not ask its members about their voting intentions or party preferences.
