Focus Is On Growth, Jobs, Federal Finance Minister Tells Fredericton Business Leaders
FREDERICTON – Deputy Prime Minister & Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland participated in a virtual question and answer session about the federal budget on Monday, organized by the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce.
The conversation, moderated by chamber CEO Krista Ross, focused on different key areas of the federal budget including tourism, new businesses and startups, the new childcare program, and the budget’s sustainability.
When asked how the budget would help businesses and startups that began operating during the pandemic, Freeland spoke about the challenges of administrating funds for such organizations.
“The challenge with new businesses is without a pre-pandemic set of revenue markets, it’s very, very hard to design programs that will cover them that won’t have obvious integrity challenges to it.”
Programs like the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS), which were announced to continue until the end of September at decreasing values, do not currently support businesses that began operating in 2020.
Freeland also noted that $5-billion of the federal budget is going towards support measures for business startups, saying the technology adoption program that will provide grants and pair businesses with trained young Canadians to help implement technologies into their workplace and an increased amount small businesses can write off on taxes.
“I really want to encourage Canadian small businesses to take this opportunity, invest in yourself, the support from the government is there to do it,” said Freeland. “when you do that, you will make yourself more prosperous, your community more prosperous and you’ll create lots of great jobs.”
RELATED: Budget Includes Billions For Daycare, Increased Benefits For Workers And Companies
When asked about how the budget helps support tourism, Freeland drew attention to the new hiring program introduced in the budget that will have the government subsidize part of new hires’ salary for the first four months of employment. She noted that the hiring credit is helpful to seasonal employment.
“The hiring credit is designed to be particularly helpful to seasonal businesses, like tourist businesses, and that’s on purpose because we know that’s where the need is the greatest,” said Freeland.
In the session, Minister Freeland touched on the need for provincial governments to support the need for the child care program that would provide Canadians with childcare for $10 a day. Freeland noted that the program could add 240,000 people to the labour force nationwide.
“Having a good system of early learning and childcare is an investment in Canada and means that the kids who benefit from that will be even smarter and do even better in their lives and in contributing to the economy,” said Freeland.
When asked a question from Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters about possible increased taxation given the necessary spending to fight Covid-19, the minister attempted to assure the group that the budget is sustainable. She said the government’s belief that the best way to pay debt is to focus on growth through small businesses, the dedication and care put into ensuring the budget is sustainable, and the need to continue spending in order to come back from the Covid recession.
“I know that we spent a lot of money and I think we’re all conscious of that, but so have all of our peer countries and we continue to have the strongest fiscal position of any of our peer countries,” said Freeland.
Freeland spent most of the session drawing attention to the budget’s focus on job growth and its impact on business.
“When you end your workday today and talk to your family about [this meeting], I hope that one thing will stick in your mind and that is that the focus of this budget is on jobs and growth,” said Minister Freeland.
Liam Floyd is a reporter for Huddle. Send him story suggestions: [email protected].