MONTREAL – A future Liberal government will help small businesses to create jobs, enhance competitiveness, and build cutting edge industries, Liberal MPs said today.
“Today, we’re talking to SMEs and stakeholders involved in international market development to discuss their concerns and share ideas on the best approaches the federal government should take,” said Liberal Industry, Science and Technology Critic Marc Garneau.
“Stephen Harper’s $6-billion plan to cut taxes for Canada’s wealthiest corporations will do nothing to help small business and manufacturers. The Liberal Party wants to do things differently with policies and programs that will help businesses find and retain employees, gain access to credit and grow their businesses.”
Today’s roundtable event is part of the Liberal “Our SMEs on the World Stage” tour. Members of the Liberal caucus are traveling to cities and communities across Quebec to explore various alternatives aimed at stimulating exports and supporting the development of our SMEs in contrast to the inaction of the Harper Conservatives.
“What I want to see in the upcoming budget is support for manufacturers and small business owners, including measures that will cut bureaucratic red tape,” said Liberal Small Business Critic Navdeep Bains. “Stephen Harper’s plans to raise payroll taxes and cut access to market data by eliminating the long-form census are not what business is asking for.”
What’s worse, said Mr. Garneau, Mr. Harper’s decision to purchase 65 F-35 stealth fighters without an open competition and without any guarantees for maximum regional benefits for industry is short-changing Quebec’s aerospace sector.
“It’s why we’ve committed to cancelling this untendered purchase and holding an open competition which will allow all potential contenders to prove the quality of their product while putting their best price and industrial benefits proposals on the table,” he said.
In the five years since taking office, the Harper Conservatives have taken Canada from a $13-billion surplus to a $56-billion deficit – a steep slide that began before, not because of, the recession in 2008.
“It’s all about choice for Quebecers: the Liberal choice of a track record of fiscal responsibility and a plan to make strategic investments in lasting economic legacies, or the borrow-and-spend Conservatives who want to waste billions more tax dollars on their skewed priorities,” concluded Mr. Bains.
The Liberal Party has an economic vision for creating long-term economic growth through strategic, targeted investments in the economy of tomorrow and revitalizing Canada’s industrial heartland. Central to this is a focus on learning, clean energy, opening new markets, and creating new jobs in emerging sector start-ups and manufacturing.
The “Our SMEs on the World Stage” tour is part of a Canada-wide Liberal Budget Outreach tour. For a complete list of participating caucus members, events and additional details, please visit our website at: http://lpc.ca/budgettour.
