This afternoon, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, President of the Treasury Board of Canada, met with members from the rom the Jeune Chambre de commerce de Québec to discuss investments for small enterprises from Budget 2021: A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth, and Resilience.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government acted swiftly to provide support to protect Canadians and support people and businesses, adapting its response as the pandemic evolved. The government's broad suite of support measures has helped families, protected jobs, and supported businesses across Canada. More than eight of every ten dollars spent to fight COVID-19 and support Canadians continues to come from the federal government.
This has, in many ways, been a two-speed recession. There have been businesses that have managed to adapt to the pandemic and to prosper. But others have been shut down outright by necessary public health restrictions or deeply limited in what they can do-and many of these highly affected businesses have been our small businesses.
Budget 2021 is a plan to make targeted investments in Canada's businesses so they can hire and train Canada's workers, who will then have more money to spend, spurring our recovery and growing an economy with more opportunities for everyone. It is a plan to help our businesses, especially small businesses, adopt new technologies. Restoring permanent and long-term economic growth means that we must help our businesses to come back stronger than ever before.
Quick Facts
- Budget 2021 includes $101.4 billion over three years in proposed investments as part of the Government of Canada's growth plan that will create good jobs and support a resilient and inclusive recovery. Key measures include:
- Extending emergency supports to bridge Canadians and Canadian businesses through to recovery, like the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Lockdown Support until September 25, 202.
- Supporting small and medium-sized businesses through several transformative programs, such as:
- A new Canada Digital Adoption Program that will assist over 160,000 businesses with the cost of new technology. And it will provide them with the advice they need to get the most of new technology with the help of 28,000 young Canadians who will be trained to work with them.
- Allowing Canadian small businesses to fully expense up to $1.5 million in capital investments in a broad range of assets, including digital technology and intellectual property. This represents an additional $2.2 billion investment in the growth of Canada's entrepreneurs over the next five years.
- Revitalizing Canada's tourism sector through $1 billion to help tourism businesses recover and support festivals and cultural events that provide jobs and growth in many of our cities and communities.
- Supporting women, Black Canadians, and other underrepresented entrepreneurs who face barriers to launching and owning businesses through $300 million to enhance initiatives like the Black Entrepreneurship Program and the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy.
- Establishing a $15 federal minimum wage.
Quotes
"When the pandemic hit, we were quick to roll out critical support for small businesses. We said we will have Canadian's backs - and we will extend business and income support measures through to the fall. We know that not making enough bold investments would slow our recovery and leave scars on our economic and social fabric."
- The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament for Québec
