The Boundary Country Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted a small business forum with B.C.’s Minister of State for Small Business, the Honourable Naomi Yamamoto at Omega Restaurant today.
Yamamoto was also a small business owner for 21 years, operating a graphic design company in North Vancouver and understands the dilemma of small business owners.
“Small businesses are classified as any business having less than 50 employees, so I can tell you that most small business people think that if you have 20 employees it is a pretty big business,” she noted. “The vast majority of small businesses in Canada have five or less employees.”
Yamamoto pointed out that the small business community is the backbone of Canada and the reason for her travelling to smaller cities is to figure out how to make small businesses thrive.
“In most instances, businesses just want to survive, so let’s figure out how to do that,” she said.
She added that some issues raised by business owners she’s spoken to included why there was so much red tape involved in completing something simple.
The roundtable discussion raised topics including the adaptation of the Pacific Carbon Trust to invest into small businesses, the co-operative model, credit ratings, and the possible impact of CETA (the Canada-European Trade Union).
Another reoccurring issue raised was the need for changing attitudes and perspectives in regards to small businesses and what it means to be considered a small business.
Mayor Brian Taylor explained that the situation in Grand Forks is that the city has an aging infrastructure and an aging population.
“Small businesses are being asked to make a big transition to dealing with the demographic change that’s happening really quickly in this area. We’re taxing at a municipal level more than what we want, and it’s more of a burden than we’d like to see on small businesses,” he said. “But it’s really difficult with the challenges we have in planning for this infrastructure deterioration, dealing with making it a welcoming and friendly community.”
Taylor went on to say that the city continues to try and maintain itself and is looking for a stronger relationship with the whole of the Boundary.
Yamamoto also pointed that there are differences between rural and big city business perspectives.
“We’re not looking at deregulating business licences, but what we are looking at is regulatory reform and streamlining,” she stated.
