About one in five small and medium-sized businesses say they can survive less than three months without support, if tariffs hit from the United States. That’s according to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey of its members. Fifty-four per cent say they don’t feel prepared for the impacts of tariffs.

If tariffs are imposed, 62 per cent say they can pass on costs to customers or clients at varying levels and 45 per cent are looking for new suppliers to address the situation. The CFIB survey also found that 24 per cent of small businesses are looking to delay expansion plans and 20 per cent are thinking about laying people off or reducing hours.

Seventy-five per cent support the Canadian government enacting retaliatory tariffs, but believe that more help for small business owners is needed, including tax relief, buy-local programs, and removing any interprovincial trade barriers.

Eighty-one per cent want Parliament recalled to deal with the tariff threat and businesses owners have a few requests. They include stopping the April 1st carbon tax increase, passing legislation to make sure carbon tax rebates for small businesses are tax free and passing the proposed legislation introduced last year to increase the lifetime capital gains exemption threshold to $1.25 million. Last month, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced the federal government was deferring the increase until after the next federal election.