PM announces support for small businesses in Southern Ontario

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Thank you very much, everybody. 

I’d like to begin by thanking Gary Goodyear for that introduction, and I’d like to acknowledge his work.  He is really the pivotal minister in today’s announcement, as Minister of State for Science and Technology and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, so please, everybody, give Minister Goodyear a big hand for his work. 

I would like all of you as well to just spend a moment to welcome my various colleagues who are with me today, Minister of Labour Lisa Raitt, Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas), Peter Kent, Senator Vim Kochhar and of course, former chief Julian Fantino here in his home area. 

Well, it’s a great pleasure to be back here in Woodbridge and Vaughan in the GTA, in the heart of Leafs Nation. 

I’d also like to thank your hosts, SolGate owner Vadim Lyubchenko for hosting us today and all the workers here at SolGate.  Thank you very much for having us here today. 
As we launch Small Business Week on Monday, it is fitting to be here at SolGate, a Canadian success story and small business innovator that creates jobs here in Vaughan. 

As you know, small business has been a focus of our Economic Action Plan and indeed our government’s agenda since taking office.  This Conservative government has reduced taxes for business.  In fact Canada will soon have the lowest business tax rates in the G7. 

We’re also focused on reducing regulation and cutting red tape to help small businesses fuel economic growth and create jobs here in the GTA and of course all across the country. 

SolGate is emblematic of a successful small business, one of the many small businesses in Vaughan that are exporting innovative new technology to the world.  Across Ontario and across Canada, we want to encourage more companies like SolGate. 

The solar panels that are made here by SolGate offer energy that is safe, silent and clean.  They provide a stellar example of how Canada is becoming a clean energy superpower. 

But innovative products like SolGate’s panels do not reach international buyers on their own.  They depend on investment capital.  Small and medium business owners have told us that attracting investment capital is the biggest challenge they face in getting their new products to market. 

They need funds for research, development, engineering, testing, market studies, and many other activities, activities that must be done before the product reaches the consumer, before the first dollar of sales revenue comes in.  And getting this capital became even more difficult after the onset of the global recession. 

Government can help, and in fact, we do help our leading-edge innovators.  That’s why we’re here today. 

Last year we established FedDev Ontario, the new Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.  It has a clear mandate to support projects that can deliver economic growth throughout the region, and we are proud of what is now being accomplished. 

Through FedDev Ontario, we are helping to ensure that the best innovations get out of the lab and into the marketplace, and let’s be clear on this.  Reaching the market is the end goal. 

You can build a better mousetrap.  However, it’s only if somebody buys it that you actually catch mice.  And this government will not let innovative ideas languish on the blackboard.

I’m proud to announce that today through FedDev Ontario our government is creating the new Investing in Business Innovation Program.  This is a four-year commitment to boost private sector start-up investment.  Hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses will use this funding to accelerate development of new products, new processes and new practices to bring them to market for Canada. 

This program will work with Angel Investor Networks that match local start-up companies with much needed venture capital funds.  This FedDev Ontario program – and I should, by the way, thank the stakeholders and thank the FedDev officials who are here who’ve worked hard on this.

This FedDev Ontario program will help fight the credit crunch, get investment capital working to create jobs, and give Canadian companies and Canadian technology a leg up in the global marketplace. 

Of course, FedDev Ontario was created as part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan.  Under this Plan some 23,000 projects, big and small, are progressing right across the country.  These are projects which will pay dividends for our economy and our communities long into the future. 

For instance, here in Vaughan, we’re improving the Humber trails system, renovating the McMichael grounds, installing energy efficient lighting on Major Mac, resurfacing roads across the city from arteries like Bathurst, Keel, Dufferin, Westin Road and Martin Grove to smaller streets, like the ones behind Thornhill Park.  We’re fixing up the Maple Community Centre, redeveloping Rainbow Creek Park.  We’re installing an elevator and renovating the rink at the Al Paladini Community Centre. 

As well, we’re making life easier for commuters across the GTA by upgrading and revitalising GO Transit, extending the Spadina subway line and investing in rapid transit in Brampton, Mississauga, and of course here in York region.  This is the right time to be investing, when our economy needs it most. 

Ladies and gentlemen, in closing, let me just say that Canadians should be very proud of the fact that during the worst global recession in half a century, our country has significantly outperformed its peers among major advanced economies.  We were the last in, least affected, and we are coming out fastest and strongest. 

We’ve kept Canadians working with stimulus projects that are effectively rejuvenating our national economic infrastructure, and our economy has now created more jobs than were lost during the recession. 

That’s a record, by the way, just about unmatched in the developed world.  But the global economy does remain fragile, so we cannot lose our focus on the economy or on the future.

And thanks to everyone in organizations like SolGate who is contributing to technological innovation and commercialization, Canada’s future looks very bright indeed, so keep up the good work. 

Thank you.

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