A slight increase in business optimism in the province is not to be celebrated, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
They released a new Business Barometer report which shows only 11% of business owners expect to hire full time staff, while 16% say they will cut staff.
They say the number that most concerns them is only a quarter of business owners say they are in good shape.
Denis Robichaud is the Director of Provincial Affairs for New Brunswick and he says one of the biggest challenges is red tape.
“Business owners waste a lot of time and money on red tape, and sometimes we’re talking about businesses that have only one employee,” says Robichaud. “He works the whole day and then has to spend some time filling out some paperwork at night, so there’s a lot of things we have to work on that file too.”
Robichaud says the province is heading in the right direction since they took power when they started lowering the small business tax from 5% to a declared end of 2.5% by the end of their mandate.
He says other things they want to see are fair energy rates, because at the moment small businesses pay higher rates for energy that they can’t really afford.
Robichaud says they are interested in the potential of the Energy East Pipeline in terms of reducing the cost of energy, and providing more jobs and money in the province.