Hanna is a Staff Writer based in Vancouver. You can reach her at hanna.hett@dailyhive.com.

A survey suggests that almost half of B.C. businesses are &#8220;dissatisfied&#8221; with how the provincial government is responding to tariffs and a lack of clear direction from the government.
Ninety per cent of respondents said the province should remove interprovincial trade barriers as a way to reduce reliance on the U.S, according to a survey run by the Business Improvement Areas of British Columbia (BIABC) in November 2025.
&#8220;Businesses continue to wait for a long-promised tariff-response strategy that has yet to be released, reads a BIABC press release. &#8220;Many businesses continue to report challenges related to sourcing, rising costs, and ongoing supply-chain uncertainty.&#8221;
&#8220;We acknowledge the province has signed some narrow-focused agreements — however, broad arrangements that encourage free trade and standardized processes across borders remain elusive.&#8221;
In November 2025, B.C. signed the <a href="https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2025JEG0054-001139" target="_blank">Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement</a>, which means that if a business&#8217;s goods meet the requirements in B.C., it no longer faces &#8220;additional testing, certification or other approvals before it can be sold across the country.&#8221;
Before this agreement took effect, Canadian businesses had to search through the &#8220;thousands of rules&#8221; to find out what requirements their products needed to meet before they could be sold in a different jurisdiction.
BIABC noted that this agreement &#8220;could be especially valuable&#8221; for small businesses that don&#8217;t have the administrative resources of larger companies.
&#8220;While the agreement is a positive step, BIABC will be watching closely to ensure it lives up to its potential.&#8221;
Another issue BIABC found in the survey is that 85 per cent of its respondents employ less than 10 people, meaning they aren&#8217;t eligible for federal tariff-response programs. It also makes it much more challenging for them to apply for support programs.
&#8220;BIABC says this makes it essential that any provincial response be simple, accessible, and designed with small operators in mind.&#8221;
BIABC surveyed 260 businesses across the province.
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Vancouver

A survey from the Business Improvement Areas of British Columbia suggests that many businesses in B.C. want more support from the government