Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are on the need to lessen the burden of doing business for small communities, as I stated in my Member's statement, and my question goes to the Minister of Finance. Mr. Speaker, I hope the Premier and Cabinet take comfort with that letter of comfort that they sent Imperial Oil. Now that we know their last-quarter profit was a record-breaking $1 billion. That's just the first quarter. I could see that this government is very anxious to give them a comfort letter, and the government is mobilizing their effort to give a let up to ATCO to get their $297 million housing project. Now I think I'd like to see some comfort on the part of this government to the small business. The Minister's of Finance budget had a mention of small businesses on page 7, Mr. Speaker, where it speaks to the fact that...The Minister states that at four percent, the small business taxation is competitive. What I can tell you, from the information from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which I believe was forwarded to Mr. Roland, it was an open letter to him and the Premier, it says that our 12 percent is not competitive. Actually, our rate is not competitive with our neighbours in Nunavut, Alberta and British Columbia, and it should really be at 12 percent. The Minister indicates that he working on a new plan for small businesses; I'd like to know if he can indicate to this House what that might be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Sandy Lee on Question 348-15(4): High Operating Costs Of Small Businesses
In the Legislative Assembly on February 7th, 2006. See this statement in context.
Question 348-15(4): High Operating Costs Of Small Businesses
Item 6: Oral Questions
February 6th, 2006
Page 797
See context to find out what was said next.