| Small Business
October 19, 2005
Small Business MLA Statements R. Cantelon: I rise today to speak about Small Business Week. We have heard an array of numbers this week providing statistical evidence of the importance of small businesses to B.C., but it isn't just about the numbers. It celebrates what is at the core of what has built this great province. It celebrates individual entrepreneurship and people with a vision, a dream, who are willing to take the risk of putting their dreams on the line in that crucible of public judgment — the marketplace. These are the individuals who have built and will continue to build this province. It is one thing to have big ideas and quite another to act on them. It is safer to tell no one, maybe to go so far as to talk it up among friends, to stay in a comfy job and not move out of a comfort zone, to take a safe attitude that might be described as one of entitlement. It's quite another to put it all on the line and just do it. Yet this is the very spirit of individualism and entrepreneurship that has not only made B.C. great; it distinguishes us as a distinct region in Canada. Separated as we are by the mountains from the rest of Canada, geography made it necessary for our pioneers to be self-reliant and independent, and this spirit has endured. Those who have come here have embraced this can-do attitude. One of the most encouraging trends lately is the increasing rate at which a number of women are taking up the challenge of opening up new businesses. Again, we lead the country in that regard. Recently I visited just such a business in Parksville. A young woman, Lori Wright, and her partner Jessica Cody, who is from the other side of those mountains — somewhere in Ontario, I think — started up their own business. They offer shiatsu massage, hot stone massage and facial rejuvenation in their spa to help us feel better, look better and indeed be better. We could probably all use some of that. I asked them: "Why here? Why now?" Their answer was that the market was ready but, most importantly, that the economic climate in B.C. was ready and ripe. Creating and sustaining this economic climate of optimism where opportunity abounds is a key priority of this government. A key initiative that the Small Business and Revenue Ministry has begun is the small business round table. | |
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