The Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) delivers results-driven advocacy that advances the interests of franchised small businesses across Canada. Through targeted government engagement, strategic policy submissions, and coordinated campaigns, the CFA has successfully influenced legislation, strengthened regulatory frameworks, and elevated the profile of franchising with decision-makers at all levels of government.
Saskatchewan Franchise Disclosure Act Regulation Amendments (2025)
Influenced final regulations to better align with established franchise frameworks in other provinces, improving consistency and reducing compliance complexity for national systems. Secured a delayed implementation timeline to June 30, 2026, providing franchisors and franchisees with additional time to prepare and adapt to the new requirements.
World Franchise Day Government Engagement (2025)
Successfully engaged 21 elected officials in a single day, beginning with the Premier launching World Franchise Day through a video message, followed by numerous Ministerial and elected official visits to franchise locations in communities across Canada. This high-impact advocacy effort significantly expanded the CFA’s reach with key decision-makers, elevated the profile of franchising nationwide, and created direct opportunities to advance priority policy issues with senior government leadership.
Franchisee Appreciation Month – Ministerial Engagement (2025)
The CFA hosted Associate Minister Nina Tangri for on-site visits with local franchisees, showcasing the sector’s economic impact and reinforcing that franchisees are independent small business owners. This engagement strengthened relationships with government and advanced CFA messaging on fair treatment of franchised SMEs.
Franchise Awareness Day (2025)
The CFA secured direct engagement with 7 Cabinet Ministers, including the Premier and Minister of Finance, resulting in concrete policy follow-ups, Ministerial commitments, and sustained momentum on key priorities such as modernizing the Arthur Wishart Act and advancing regulatory fairness for franchised small businesses.
Capital Gains Inclusion Rate Change (2024)
As part of the 2024 federal budget, the Government of Canada proposed changing the capital gains inclusion rate to 67% on all gains over $250,000 in a given year. As part of this change, government argued that it would affect the roughly 0.13% of Canadians who have an annual average income of $1.33 million. In reality, these changes would affect many franchised small business owners who invested everything they had into their businesses, planning to rely on the income from a sale to fund their retirements.
In response, the CFA helped to build a coalition of other industry associations to oppose the proposed changes and to highlight the effect they would have on everyday Canadians, including franchised small business owners. This coalition received significant national media attention and caused the federal government to delay bringing the amendments forward for approval.
With the election of Mark Carney as Prime Minister in early 2025, his government has committed to not moving forward with these changes.
Changes to the Canada Small Business Finance Program are Now in Force (2023)
After several years of advocacy, the CFA successfully lobbied to make key changes to the Canada Small Business Finance Program (CSBFP) to better help franchisors and franchisees. These changes to the Canada Small Business Financing Regulations came into force on July 4, 2022.
Through these changes, the CSBFP will now allow intangible assets (franchise fees, incorporation costs, permits and licenses, etc.) and working capital costs to be financed as a term loan. These were previously ineligible for financing under the program and had to be paid for out of pocket or through other credit products that were offered by financial institutions.
The changes to the CSBFP give lenders and small businesses additional financing products, a new class of loans, increased loan amounts and terms, improved loan conditions, and decreased administrative burden. Now that the changes are legally in force, the banks can start to incorporate them into the financing products that they offer. Each bank will implement the changes based on its own internal rollout process that is outside of the control of both the federal government and the CFA.
Arthur Wishart Act Consultation (2024)
Following the success of Franchise Awareness Day in 2024, the CFA continued to engage with the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery on proposed amendments to the Arthur Wishart Act. Through this engagement, the CFA was invited to make recommendations on simple changes that the Ontario government could make to provide further clarity in the Act. The CFA established a sub-committee, chaired by Larry Weinberg, which included Ryan Picklyk, David Druker, Todd Wylie, Sherry McNeil, Nathan Oxford, Andraya Frith, and Peter Viitre.
Attorney General of Ontario at Franchise Law Day (2024)
In a CFA first, the Hon. Doug Downey, KC, the Attorney General of Ontario, accepted an invitation to attend the 2024 Franchise Law Day and delivered a keynote address to attendees. Additionally, Minister Downey agreed to meet with selected members to discuss key priorities for our membership. The conversation was very beneficial, with the Attorney General providing valuable feedback that the CFA continues to incorporate into its advocacy efforts.
Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery at Law Day (2025)
The CFA secured Ontario’s Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery, Stephen Crawford, as the keynote speaker for Franchise Law Day, reinforcing the Association’s strong relationship with a key regulatory decision-maker. In his remarks, the Minister acknowledged the CFA’s leadership on modernizing the Arthur Wishart Act and committed to continuing efforts to update the legislation.
This engagement elevated franchise law reform within the government’s agenda and positioned the CFA as a trusted partner in shaping future legislative changes. It also built directly on earlier advocacy efforts, including targeted meetings with the Minister and ongoing staff-level engagement in advance of the event.
Helped franchise businesses pay their rent (2021)
The CFA lobbied government to create the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program. We also lobbied government to fix problems that arose from the program, which resulted in the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS).