October 23, 2003
Government support for small business
Question to the Minister of State for Deregulation, Kevin Falcon
R. Lee: My question is to the Minister of State for Deregulation. This week is national Small Business Week, which recognizes the immense contribution of small and medium businesses to our Canadian economy. In British Columbia, small businesses with fewer than five employees make up the majority of all businesses, and this sector is continuing to grow each year.
Can the minister tell British Columbians what he is doing to create a climate where small businesses can develop and thrive?
Hon. K. Falcon: Under the leadership of our Premier and Finance minister, we introduced some very dramatic changes to the tax system. We had in British Columbia, under the previous NDP government, one of the highest marginal tax rates in North America. A 25 percent personal income tax cut and a cut in the business tax rate to make sure we were competitive with Alberta have changed the environment in British Columbia.
When you add in the fact that we've reduced the red tape and regulatory burden by almost 17 percent, which means eliminating almost 80,000 unnecessary regulations in British Columbia; when you include the changes we made to the Small Business Venture Capital Act, which will help create more pools of investment that will be invested in the heartlands of British Columbia; when you consider the changes the Securities Commission has made to the new capital-raising exemption rule, which has raised over a billion dollars in new capital for small business in the last 12 months alone — all of this is creating the kind of climate that is creating one of the highest levels of confidence for small business in the country.
