Leading into the election the Prince Rupert Northern View will be sending questions out to the candidates on different topics of interest to the North Coast. This week the question focused on small business development. While all candidates had the opportunity to respond with up to 300 words by press deadline, only the following two candidates provided answers. The question this week is:
How would you support new small business ventures in the riding?
Rod Taylor
Christian Heritage Party
CHP Canada basically believes that government should stay out of the way of small businesses.
The federal government is a poor entrepreneur and is a poor judge of which businesses should succeed. The CHP opposes corporate welfare. Government should make every effort to reduce red tape.
Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, strengthening local communities and providing income for local families. Where businesses are required to allocate resources for the collection of taxes on behalf of the federal government, there should be compensation to offset additional costs to the business.
The federal government has an interest in ensuring that Canadians have good jobs, that tax laws are applied fairly, that environmental concerns are addressed and that Canadians have access to good quality, locally-grown food.
For these reasons, research and incentives should be pursued that support investment in local greenhouses and intensive agriculture as well as research and development of alternative energy sources.
Nathan Cullen
New Democratic Party
Small business in the north is made stronger when large projects (eg LNG, RTA rebuild, new mines) are moving ahead.
I’ve supported a vision of small business support in the region from the first days of my being elected to office. Our platform proposes a $4,500 tax credit for businesses that take on new hires and a further $1,000 if they keep them on over a year. We’ve also called for the small business tax to be dropped 2% from it’s current level.
Small businesses in Canada and the Northwest create the vast majority of the new jobs in our economy and are particularly important during a recovery. In this region it will be the small and medium-sized businesses that will create the jobs we need to innovate and diversify our natural resource economy.