July 22, 2019 - Calgary, Alberta
Small businesses make up 98% of all Canadian businesses and employ 8 million hard-working Canadians from coast to coast to coast. They are the backbone of our economy and critical to the middle class.
Today, the Honourable Mary Ng, Canada's Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion, was in Calgary to meet with entrepreneurs and small business owners to talk about the ways the Government of Canada is supporting their success.
To begin her day, Minister Ng announced a $902,060 investment in Calgary Economic Development (CED) to expand its Trade Accelerator Program.
Since May 2018, CED has delivered the Program to 74 participating companies that have then signed six trade deals or partnerships, created 22 new full-time jobs for the local economy, and have drawn an average annual revenue of $4.1 million. This investment will help deliver the Trade Accelerator Program to 12 cohorts over three years in Alberta.
Minister Ng then announced $3,237,759 to the following three recipients of the WES Ecosystem Fund (Regional Stream):
- Community Futures Central Alberta (Red Deer, AB), which will create an Indigenous women entrepreneurship program in Central Alberta;
- Momentum Community Economic Development Society (Calgary, AB), which will deliver entrepreneurship programs for vulnerable women and women-run social enterprises in Calgary; and
- Lethbridge Economic Development Initiative Society [Economic Development Lethbridge] (Lethbridge, AB), which will create a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-centric community for women in Southern Alberta.
Throughout her tour, Minister Ng met with small business owners, including those at the Filipino Chamber of Commerce Alberta. She talked about the government's many initiatives that are making it easier for small business owners to do business, such as:
- Lowering the small business tax rate to 9%, one of the lowest rates in the world;
- Getting credit card companies to lower the fees they charge businesses when their customers use credit cards;
- Launching the Canada Business App that brings the world of government programs and services to your fingertips and provides helpful notifications;
- Providing access to over a billion and a half new customers through trade deals like the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, commonly called the new NAFTA;
- Introducing the Accelerated Investment Incentive that will allow businesses of all sizes in all sectors of the economy to write off a larger share of the cost of newly acquired assets in the year the investment is made;
- Committing to universal high-speed Internet across Canada;
- Investing $2 billion to help double the number of women-owned businesses by 2025; and
- Reducing over 450 federal rules that impose an administrative burden on business.
Quotes
"This is a small business-friendly government that is working hard to reduce red tape and make it easier for Canadian small business owners to start up, scale up and access new markets. When small businesses in communities across the country succeed, our economy grows and middle-class jobs are created."
- The Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion
"Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and at the heart of communities across Alberta. From lowering the small business tax rate to removing longstanding barriers to business, our government is working hard to support small business owners and entrepreneurs as they grow, including helping them become export-ready so that they can take advantage of Canada's 14 trade agreements that are opening up access to 1.5 billion customers."
- Kent Hehr, Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre
