The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is anticipating the release of the upcoming provincial budget.

They surveyed business owners across Manitoba for months to see what small business owners are looking for.

Jonathan Alward is the Director of the Prairie Region. He says tax relief is at the top of their priorities.

"Increasing the basic personal exemption amounts to the national average would be the first priority for the vast majority of small businesses in Manitoba. If you look at across the country, Manitoba's basic personal exemption amount is the lowest west of Newfoundland right now, and much lower than Saskatchewan for example."

He adds it's a good way to put money back into employee's pockets.

There are a lot of other tax measures that can be taken as well.

"One of them was, of course, mentioned just before Wednesday of this week, when the budget was supposed to drop. That was increasing the Manitoba payroll tax, or the Health imposed secondary education tax levy. This was a very encouraging announcement seeing a lower exemption threshold increase to 1.5 million dollars. This is the first time it's been raised since 2008, so frankly, it's long overdue, but we're pleased to see it."

In his opinion, the payroll tax was one of the most regressive and punishing taxes on business across Canada.

The CFIB also wants to see the HE Levy exemption threshold raised to $2.5 million, the elimination of school property taxes on farmland, and commercial properties.

Alward says there's also a need for the province to spend responsibly.

"Manitobans, Business owners, and the province all need to live within their means, so they certainly expect the government to do the same. That's something they'll be looking at in this budget, continued deficit reductions and getting closer to balanced budgets are still on their timeline of the 2022 budget."