Champagne says Thursday's budget will add small-business measures
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Monday that Thursday's federal budget will include new measures to support small and medium-sized businesses. He made the remarks in a morning speech at the Canadian Club Toronto.
Champagne said Canada has the fiscal room to make investments that support long-term economic growth, pointing to the country's triple-A credit rating, a top mark for how safely a government can borrow. He said the budget would be "going further" on the small-business front. He described it as a budget about entrepreneurs, innovators and creators.
He also said the tax code contains "a number of boutique things" that are hard for small and medium-sized businesses to manage. Many of these firms, he said, often have to rely on tax advisers to work through them. Champagne said the budget would show "a journey" toward fixing these problems and simplifying life for those businesses.
In a broader description of the budget, Champagne said it is about "changing Canada's growth model." It is the second budget of the Carney government. The budget will also include new details on major policies, including the Canada Strong Fund.
Before the speech, economists and industry groups had already outlined what they expected. Scotiabank economist Rebekah Young released a report on Oct. 29 saying the budget could include a targeted review of tax breaks known as tax expenditures, which are also referred to as boutique tax cuts.
Benjamin Bergin, chief executive of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, an industry group for investment firms, told The Globe and Mail that his members are cautiously optimistic the budget will include further tax measures. Those could include capital-gains incentives for Canadian startups, meaning incentives tied to the profit made from selling an investment, as well as tax changes aimed at keeping Canadian entrepreneurs in the country.
Expectations for the fall budget also include Ottawa cutting the small-business tax rate to six per cent from nine per cent. Forecasters have also expected an increase in the small-business-deduction threshold.
