Canada's Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion shared how the federal government is helping small business owners start up, scale up and access new markets
April 8, 2019 - Halifax, Nova Scotia
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.
This week, the Honourable Mary Ng, Canada's Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion, was in Truro and Halifax to meet with entrepreneurs and small business owners to talk about the ways the Government of Canada is supporting their success.
On April 8, Minister Ng began her day in Truro with a fireside chat with small business owners and members of the Truro and Colchester Chamber of Commerce. She then met with small business owners and entrepreneurs in the area, discussing the government's supports for small businesses, including how the government is working to create opportunities for small businesses to harness the digital economy to increase exports.
When meeting with small business owners, Minister Ng shared the government's many initiatives that are making it easier for small business owners to do business like:
- 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;
- 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 amount of women-owned businesses by 2025; and
- reducing over 450 federal rules that impose an administrative burden on business.
"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 Truro, Halifax and 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 vital to our rural communities. Our government has taken historic steps to help the prosperity of our small businesses, like lowering the small business tax rate from 11% to 9% and investing in measures that help them reach new customers and hire more employees. When we support small businesses, we help our neighbours, our friends and our families prosper. Whether on the Eastern Shore, in Pictou County or in Antigonish, small business here in Nova Scotia are growing, innovating and inspiring success for our communities."
- Sean Fraser, Member of Parliament for Central Nova
