Media Release on Supporting Small Business

NDP commits to help small businesses struggling through COVID-19 pandemic

Today, Canada’s NDP released a plan to deliver help for small businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic.

While the government has handed out hundreds of billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief to big corporations, they have done the bare minimum for the small businesses that are vital to our communities. The NDP pushed the government repeatedly and successfully to create and expand COVID-19 supports for small businesses including increasing the wage subsidy, expanding eligibility for emergency loan and rent subsidy programs, and providing paid sick leave for workers who need it. But these programs and improvements have not been enough for many small businesses.

“Small businesses in Edmonton like the Pink Gorilla Pizzeria and Urge 2 Tattoo in have struggled to make it through the past year,” said Edmonton Strathcona MP Heather McPherson. “These businesses are vital to the fabric of our community. They need a government that will support them in hard times and help them recover, a government that chooses Main Street over Bay Street.”

The NDP plan includes an excess profit tax on pandemic profits to better support small businesses. It also commits to extending the wage subsidy until the pandemic is over so small businesses can hold on to their workforce and maintaining the rent subsidy program. And to get people back to work, the NDP plan includes a hiring bonus to pay the employer portions of Employment Insurance and the Canadian Pension Plan for new or rehired staff.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. Our neighbourhoods will never be the same if we don’t support our small businesses,” McPherson added. “We’ve come this far; it makes no sense to let businesses fail now.”