Economic Action Plan 2015: Supporting Jobs and Growth

Our Conservative Government recently tabled Canada’s Economic Action Plan 2015: a low-tax plan that will help to create jobs, spur economic growth, and ensure long-term prosperity for all Canadians. It’s a budget that focuses on the priorities of hard-working Canadian families.
It’s also the budget that returns us to balance.
With our Action Plan our top priority remains creating jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity. This is a priority shared by all Canadians.
We have accomplished a great deal so far. All of the jobs lost during the recession have been recovered – along with more than 1.2 million net new jobs created since the depths of the downturn. But we need to do even more to create jobs in a tough world economy. In Economic Action Plan 2015, our Government’s latest budget, we are doing exactly that.
Small businesses are the engine of the Canadian economy. They represent 99 percent of all businesses in the country and employ half of Canada’s working men and women in the private sector. That is why Economic Action Plan 2015 proposes to cut the small business tax rate to 9 percent by 2019. We already cut it to 11 percent in 2008. Now, we will go even further. Once fully implemented, our government will have cut small business taxes by almost 50%. That’s 50% more of their earnings small businesses can use to invest in their companies and create jobs.
Next to high taxes, nothing kills jobs like red tape. Entrepreneurs should spend their time building their businesses, not dealing with job-killing red tape. That is why our Government launched the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan. It includes the One-for-One Rule, which requires that one regulation be removed each time another is added. Since implemented, it has saved businesses over $22 million and 290,000 hours spent dealing with red tape. Over the next year, we will build on this record by developing the next phase of the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan.
Economic Action Plan 2015 also improves access to the Canada Small Business Financing Program. The program helps new businesses get off the ground and helps established businesses expand and create new jobs. Our budget will raise the small business eligibility criteria and increase the maximum loan amount for real property. This means better access to loans for business owners, so they can grow their businesses.
But more than this, we want to prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs to unleash a new wave of innovation and prosperity. That is why this budget provides $14 million over two years to Futurpreneur Canada. Since 1996, they have helped more than 7,500 young entrepreneurs launch over 6,200 businesses. This new funding will help them get even more businesses off the ground.
These targeted investments matter. They will create jobs and growth at a time when the global economy is still tough – and Canadians will be more prosperous for it