FederalBill C-291First Reading
Bill C-291: An Act to amend the Department of Industry Act (small businesses)
Sponsor: Elizabeth MayIntroduced June 17, 2026Last checked August 28, 2026
Read the official text on parl.caOfficial version — LEGISinfo, Parliament of Canada
What this bill does
This bill amends the Department of Industry Act to require the federal government to conduct a 'small business impact assessment' for every new bill or regulation that could significantly affect Canadian small businesses, with results tabled in Parliament or published in the Canada Gazette.
Plain-language summary by Legisail.
Business impact
This bill benefits small businesses across all industries and every province — whether you run a restaurant, a construction crew, a retail shop, or a farm with fewer than 50 employees. It doesn't impose new obligations on business owners themselves; instead, it puts a new requirement on the federal government to assess how proposed laws and regulations will affect you before they pass. In practice, this means more scrutiny of rules that touch your day-to-day operations — like payroll rules, licensing requirements, tax changes, or sector-specific regulations — before they become law. The protection is aimed squarely at small operators, with the 50-employee threshold serving as the benchmark for who counts as a 'small business' under the assessment framework.
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Where this bill is
First ReadingJune 17, 2026
Next: Second Reading debate
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