We all know the mantra of "shop local" but it's taking on a new urgency as expenses to business owners continue to increase with increases to the Canada Pension Plan for both employers and employees.

Adam Stepa, Partner at Infinite Chartered Professional Accountants, says the trend created by continued increases in expenses doesn't look good for employees.

"Employees are becoming a burden on small businesses. We're seeing a trend to get away from employees, whether that's trying to hire contractors, or the owners taking on more themselves and not bringing in outside employees," he said.

Stepa says this not only increases costs businesses are facing, but presents added risks as businesses try to stay afloat.

"It opens up these small businesses to a lot of risk. If CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) comes in and deems these subcontractors as employees, there's a huge audit risk and cost that goes into that," said Stepa.

As expenses continue to rise, as has been seen with minimum wage prior to the CPP increase, it becomes more important for residents to keep shopping local and support local businesses.

 

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