The province is reducing the small business tax rate by half a point.
“Small businesses are the economic engines of B.C.’s communities and create good jobs for people throughout the province,” said Premier John Horgan, in a press release. “We’re working hard to make sure that small businesses and manufacturers have the support they need. That’s why we’re reducing the small business tax rate to two per cent from 2.5 per cent and establishing a Small Business Task Force to help strengthen and grow the sector in B.C.”
The Small Business Profile 2017 report shows that employment in B.C.’s small-business sector grew faster in 2016 than at any time in the past decade, with more than one million people employed in small businesses last year. In fact, small businesses produced more than one-third of provincial GDP in 2016 and $15.8 billion in exports in 2015, an increase of nearly $3 billion over the previous year, according to the province.
The latest numbers show British Columbia leads the country in growth in the number of new small businesses and has the highest number of small businesses per capita across Canada, with small business making up 98 per cent of all businesses in the province.
As part of Small Business Week, the province has partnered with Small Business BC to offer free professional seminars, webinars and ‘Ask the Expert’ services for small businesses during this time. Entrepreneurs and organizations representing small businesses and manufacturers will be marking both Small Business Week and Manufacturing Week with events throughout the province.
As many of B.C.’s manufacturers are small businesses, declaring Manufacturing Week and Small Business Week together provides an opportunity for stakeholders to take advantage of events supporting both sectors.
“Manufacturing is a critical part of B.C.’s economy, contributing 7.2 per cent of GDP,” said Andrew Wynn-Williams, vice-president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters BC Division. “We also produce some fascinating products in B.C. and Manufacturing Week gives us an opportunity to profile for the public the nature of the industry and some of the cool things we make.”
Manufacturing Week in B.C. is part of a broader national Manufacturing Month initiative led by Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) to profile manufacturing across Canada, and is intended to boost the public profile of the manufacturing sector’s contributions to the economy.
