By Cheryl Jahn

Celebrating small business

Oct 19, 2023 | 3:24 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – “More than 500,000 small businesses in the province. That’s significant. They’re more than 30% of our overall GDP. One in ten people either rent a small business or is a small business person or works for small business. I mean, these are very significant numbers. So the health of small businesses is the health of British Columbia, and that can’t be overstated.”

That was the Minister of Jobs as part of Small Business Week. It’s an industry that accounts for 98% of all businesses. But it’s also an industry that faces unparalleled challenges. It’s something the Minister of Jobs is intimately aware of as a small business owner in her past life. And Brenda Bailey says they’re trying to help with a program that will be rolled out in the next few weeks called Securing Small Businesses to Help with vandalism.

“That’s up to $3,000 that small businesses can buy for $2000 to cover the cost of vandalism, breaking windows, that sort of thing. And a thousand businesses can apply for preventative things like cameras and metal sliders, that sort of thing. So that will be rolling out in the next little while.”

But Quynlan Young, CEO of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, says while those kinds of programs can be helpful, there are a lot more barriers put in place by government that impede small businesses. And she highlights what would help.

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“I mean, always decreasing taxes for our small businesses. I mean, we talked about the employer health tax. We talked about the five sick days. All of these things are costing businesses money. I understand the necessity of these things for workers, but we need support. We need financial support for those businesses.”

And celebrating small business is what the Business Excellence Awards tomorrow night are all about.

“That night is just about celebrating a night of recognition and just a time to come together and acknowledge all of the hard work that all of these business owners put into the day-to-day. It’s going to be a really fun night.”