Small, medium-size businesses to receive carbon rebates in December

Owners of small- and medium-sized businesses will finally receive their long-awaited carbon pricing refunds before the end of this year, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on Tuesday.

The Finance Department says the federal government will send more than $2.5 billion to about 600,000 Canadian businesses in December.

The payments will return a portion of the carbon price revenue from 2019-20 through 2023-24 to small businesses in jurisdictions where the federal fuel charge applies.

The amount received by a business will depend on the province it operates in and the number of workers it employs.

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For example, a business in Ontario with 10 employees can expect to receive $4,010, while a business in Saskatchewan with 499 employees will receive $576,844.

"So these are real, significant sums of money. They're going to make a big difference to Canadian small business," Freeland said in a news conference on Tuesday.

The federal government also said lower credit card transaction fees for small businesses will take effect on Oct. 19, saving them about $1 billion over five years.

It also announced a revised code of conduct for the payment card industry "that will help businesses compare prices and offers from different payment processors, and shorten the complaint handling response time by nearly 80 per cent to just 20 business days."

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business applauded the announcements but called for the abolition of the carbon levy.

"While CFIB welcomes the federal government delivering on its commitment to return a portion of carbon tax revenues to small businesses, the vast majority of small firms (83 per cent) now oppose the carbon tax. CFIB will continue to call on all political parties to scrap the carbon tax at the earliest possibility," the business group said in a statement.

The federal government also announced the final list of Chinese-made aluminum and steel products that will be subject to a 25 per cent tariff, which will come into effect on Oct. 22.

The 100 per cent tariff announced last month on Chinese-made electric vehicles came into effect Tuesday.