Windsor received a failing grade for its support of small businesses in a report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The CFIB’s 2026 Municipal Report Card examined 66 municipalities across Canada, evaluating policies and services that affect local businesses. Windsor received an F grade and ranked 39th overall, tied with Surrey, B.C. The report assessed municipalities in three areas: the cost of doing business, regulatory burden and overall business friendliness. Criteria included property taxes and tax relief programs for small businesses, the number of permits and licences required to operate, digital permitting services and the availability of permit approval timelines. The report also considered construction mitigation measures, business-focused online services and municipal budget transparency. Angela Drennan, CFIB vice-president of legislative affairs, said Windsor’s lowest score came in the area of regulatory burden. “There’s no ability to both apply and pay for business licences online, which seems a little odd to me post-COVID,” Drennan said. “You’d think that would be something that’s low-hanging fruit for the city to do. There’s an above-average number of permits required to start and operate a business. There’s no publicly available licence and permit approval timelines posted.” Drennan said Windsor also lacks a dedicated red tape feedback portal that would allow businesses to report challenges to the municipality. “Most municipalities do have in-house IT staff that they can rely on to build a simple form,” she said. “But it needs to be dedicated to red tape so that businesses and residents, frankly, can write in and tell the municipality, ‘Hey, these are the challenges we’re experiencing.’ The point of it, though, is not just to collect the information. Municipalities then need to fix it.” Despite the failing grade, Drennan said the report identified some strengths. “You actually do quite well on tax fairness compared to a lot of other municipalities in Ontario,” she said. “That is something other municipalities could try to emulate. I also saw the operating spending growth. You didn’t overspend, which is great.” Drennan said the report is intended to provide municipalities with a roadmap for improvement rather than to single them out for criticism. According to the report, 39 of the 66 municipalities evaluated received an F grade, while none scored higher than a C+.
