Cybele NegrisI am extremely honoured to have been appointed to the Government of BC’s Small Business Roundtable.
Since forming in 2005, the roundtable has held over 35 consultations with more than 600 small business owners. The 24 members of the Roundtable represent small business organizations from every region of B.C.
The Roundtable presented its 4th Annual Report to Minister Iain Black at the Vancouver Board of Trade event on Friday October 16th. The report presents recommendations to government and the small business community on ways to improve B.C.’s business sector.
Below are Highlights of the Small Business Roundtable 4th Annual Report.
Recommendations to the small business community include:
* Strive to leverage government resources
* Take creative approaches to retaining staff
* Become involved in the local community
* Develop worker skills, and learn how to participate in the green economy
Recommendations to government include:
* Continue support for training and labour development
* Continue to reduce regulatory burdens on small business
* Continue to reduce tax complexity
* Continue to build on the success of B.C.’s international trade outreach to expand trade
The roundtable report acknowledges government’s support for small
business, including:
* Accelerating a reduction in the small business corporate income tax rate
from 4.5 to 2.5 per cent, saving small businesses an estimated $401
million over three years
* Increasing the small business tax threshold from $400,000 to $500,000 in
January 2010, saving small businesses $20 million per year
* Eliminating over 152,000 regulations since 2001 – a red tape reduction
of over 42 per cent
* Spearheading efforts to create a new private-sector pension plan for
British Columbians without a retirement savings plan
* Breaking down barriers to doing business, including developing on-line
tools such as BizPaL and providing greater flexibility through the Mobile
Business Licence
* Supporting labour market planning through $100 million per year on
trades training since 2001; $3 million towards youth entrepreneurship
education; $16 million over three years to help B.C.’s immigrant
workforce; and $17 million in Labour Market Agreement projects helping
businesses develop and deliver training suited to their needs
For a copy of the report, please visit: www.smallbusinessroundtable.ca/publications/Pages/default.aspx