Taxes too high? Electricity rates threatening to put you out of business?

If you're a Sault small business owner weary of dealing with rising electricity costs and other small business headaches, here's another opportunity to make your concerns known.

It isn't too late for Sault small business owners to register for input sessions hosted by the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce.

The sessions are part of a larger campaign, entitled 'Small Business, Too Big to Ignore,' organized by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

The Ontario chamber will be gathering input, including a long list of grievances, and presenting it to the Ontario government in October.

The first Sault Chamber session was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday June 8, with the second scheduled to run from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday June 15 and the third from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday June 21.

Each session will be held at the Quality Inn & Suites Bay Front at 180 Bay Street.

Small business owners may register for the June 15 or June 21 events here or here or by calling the Chamber office at 705-949-7152.

"What we're looking to achieve through 'Small Business, Too Big to Ignore' is a recognition of entrepreneurship in Sault Ste. Marie and how vital it is to a sustainable economy," said Rory Ring, the Sault Chamber's executive director, speaking to SooToday.

Small businesses are defined by Industry Canada as employers with 100 employees or less.

Nearly three million Ontarians are employed by small businesses.

Approximately 80 to 90 percent of the Sault Chamber's member businesses have 100 employees or less, about 60 percent have 50 employees or less, and a third of its' members have 25 employees or less, Ring said.

There are also "micro enterprises" with five employees or less.  

"It's pretty typical and reflective of the way the economy is structured elsewhere," Ring said.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce, in a new report, has identified the top three obstacles to small business success.

Those obstacles are a lack of employer access to properly trained individuals (mostly in areas such as manufacturing and skilled trades), a $60 billion infrastructure gap (a lack of adequate roads and bridges and high-speed Internet to open up economic activity in rural and Northern communities) and the rising cost of doing business (rising electricity rates and, beginning in 2018, the cost of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, or ORPP, to employers).

"There's always the risk of closure with a small business . . . the Sault does have some very positive support mechanisms for small business, whether it be ourselves, the Economic Development Corporation, the Community Development Corporation," Ring said, though he added the obstacles to small business must be addressed by all three levels of government.

"Locally…we have the highest industrial and commercial property taxes, (city council) is considering development charges, you take those two local elements and you start adding that on to what is already occurring provincially and federally and it does make it a challenge to make a living as an entrepreneur," Ring said.

"It comes down to the rising cost of electricity, absolutely," said Ring, when asked to identify the single biggest obstacle facing the Sault's small businesses.

"They're operating at the highest peak time, you've got restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, motels…(electricity) is the number one concern, and that is throughout the province."

"The cost of power is an incredibly significant issue for us…we really need to get that fixed."

All three levels of government need to do more to help small businesses, Ring said.

"We'd like the municipality to reduce the industrial and commercial tax rates and do that by finding efficiencies in their own operations, and we certainly do not want them to put development charges in effect."

"At the provincial level, we'd like to see them level that playing field out with the cost of energy, we're already giving surplus energy away, why not reduce the cost of energy for the business community…we'd like to see them take away the smart meters, or use the information they collect through the meters to give small business owners a break."

"At the federal level we'd like to see them reinstate efforts to reduce small business tax levels."

The provincial government, of which Sault MPP David Orazietti is a member, has put an ever-increasing emphasis on renewable energy and removed conventional coal-fired electricity from the production grid.

Coal-fired electricity was cheaper to produce but led to many illnesses.

Renewable energy, while cleaner, is more expensive.

Terry Sheehan, at the federal level, has also unfurled the "clean, green" energy flag.

Does Ring feel that our elected leaders are truly paying attention to the burden felt by small businesses?

"I think both Terry and David do a very good job of representing the interests of Sault Ste. Marie, they do have Northern caucuses…however when you look at the actual leadership (at the highest level), you do wonder if they are listening," Ring said.

"There is a fundamental lack of understanding that decisions made in the GTA are not applicable to places like Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Timmins, White River."

Because of that, members of Northern Ontario chambers of commerce, including the Sault Chamber, will be travelling as a group to Queen's Park in November, Ring said.

"We're going to fly that Northern flag and say we've got some great things going on in the North, we're leaders in alternative energy, aviation, electronic gaming…hopefully then we can start to talk a little more comprehensively about the cost of energy and the cumulative effects of it on Northern business."

Ring said provincial politicians from each party at Queen's Park have already been made aware the Northern delegation will be visiting in November, after an earlier visit by Ring and Monica Dale, Sault Chamber president, in May.

Those politicians include Orazietti, Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle, Nipissing's Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli and NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

"Hopefully we'll be able to meet with the Premier (Kathleen Wynne) and the Deputy Premier (Deb Matthews), we've met with them before and they're good listeners, but sometimes you need to move from listening to action, and hopefully we can get some movement on some of these issues."

Previous discussions with the province have at least convinced the government to postpone such things as the ORPP, Ring said, "so there is some listening going on."

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce, after gathering input from the focus group sessions held for chambers of commerce across the province, including those held in the Sault, will release a report during Small Business Week in October. 

That report, Ring said, will be brought primarily to the provincial government's attention, but added the other levels of government will be made aware of it as well.

"And it won't end with the October report, we're going to continue these efforts on an annual basis," Ring said.