On Parliament Hill

I was pleased by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent announcement for continued support for Futurpreneur Canada. This demonstrates our Conservative Government’s intent to provide continued support to Futurpreneur Canada, a not-for-profit organization that helps young entrepreneurs across Canada launch and sustain businesses.

Since 2006, our Conservative Government has provided Futurpreneur Canada over $58 million in support.

Futurpreneur Canada works with young entrepreneurs to help them become the business leaders of tomorrow through mentoring, expert advice, learning resources and start-up financing. It delivers its programs through a national network of 250 community partners and more than 2,800 volunteers, including business mentors.

The support for Futurpreneur Canada will go to enhance the ability of young entrepreneurs to start small businesses across the country by providing both mentoring and business financing.

This announcement builds on the Government’s commitment to encourage and support entrepreneurship by connecting young entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to succeed. Small businesses represent 99 per cent of all businesses in Canada and account for about 50 per cent of jobs in the private sector.

For information on how to contact program administrators, please visit the website.

Since 2006, our Government has taken significant steps to improve support for small businesses and entrepreneurs, including:

• Reducing the small business tax rate to 11 per cent;
• Increasing the income limit for the small business tax rate from $300,000 to $500,000;
• Implementing the one-for-one rule to cut unnecessary red tape, saving Canadian businesses over $22 million in administrative burden as of June 2014, as well as 290,000 hours in time spent dealing with red tape;
• Improving access to capital for innovative entrepreneurs by launching the Venture Capital Action Plan;
• Supporting the hiring of apprentices with the Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit, a non-refundable tax credit equal to 10 per cent of the eligible salaries and wages payable to eligible apprentices; and,
• Increasing the lifetime capital gains exemption (LCGE) for small business owners from $500,000 to $800,000 and indexing this new limit to inflation. On account of indexation, the LCGE limit increased to $813,600 for 2015.