New Business and Market Development Program supports small business community

A new $500,000 Business and Market Development Program within the Department of Development and Rural Renewal is among several initiatives announced in today's provincial budget that gives greater priority to small business development.

The new program is designed to provide new entrepreneurs or expanding small businesses with access to modest resources, on a matching basis, to help them acquire the necessary business expertise to pursue new business ideas and new markets for their products or services.

"We are acting on strong direction the public has given us during our public consultations on the renewal of our Jobs and Growth strategy," says Beaton Tulk, Minister of Development and Rural Renewal.

Mr. Tulk, who heads the Cabinet Committee on Jobs and Growth, said the committee was told repeatedly that small business owners with good ideas were having difficulty accessing financing for development activities such as market and technical research, often at a time in a company's development when such funding is critical to advancing its business plan.

The Business and Market Development Program will provide support in three main areas:

- marketing development activities such as new market entry strategies and new product development; - researching technical feasibility issues respecting potential business opportunities; and - support for acquiring external expertise on production processes, marketing and financial management, or other internal company needs for growth and expansion.

"This new program helps fill a gap identified by small business owners," Mr. Tulk said. "With this program and other related initiatives being implemented from the Jobs and Growth consultations, we are acting to ensure that our support programs are more accessible to the small business community, and are more responsive to the needs they have identified." Other initiatives include a new $2 million seed capital equity program, and a venture capital tax credit program.

"These new initiatives, along with the increase in the threshold for the payroll tax, and the maintenance of the manufacturing and processing tax at its current competitive level, are strong indicators of the importance government places on the small business sector and its critical role in creating jobs and economic growth," said Minister Tulk.

The new Business and Market Development Program will provide non-repayable contributions to eligible applicants of up to 50 per cent of the costs of eligible activities to a maximum of $25,000.

Small businesses seeking further information on the new program can contact a local office of the Department of Development and Rural Renewal.

Media contact: Josephine Cheeseman, Communications, (709) 729-4570.

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