Minister Valdez wraps up activities to celebrate Small Business Month and highlights government supports for entrepreneurs

OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 1, 2024 /CNW/ - The Honourable Rechie Valdez, Minister of Small Business, celebrated Small Business Month (SBM) by meeting with local entrepreneurs and business organizations to highlight the federal government supports that are available to help them thrive.

Minister Valdez kicked off October by announcing that the federal government has negotiated lower credit card interchange fees by up to 27% for small businesses across Canada. These lower fees for Visa and Mastercard took effect on October 19, 2024. Minister Valdez also announced that the Canada Carbon Rebate will be distributing $2.5 billion to about 600,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Canada where the federal fuel charge applies. The amount is dependent on a business' number of employees. For example, Ontarian small businesses will receive $401 per employee. Small and medium-sized businesses that filed their taxes before July 15 will receive an automatic payment by the end of this year.

Throughout SBM, Minister Valdez met with small business owners across the country. She also engaged with diverse groups of entrepreneurs at the Mississauga Board of Trade, the CanadianSME Magazine Small Business Summit, the Casa Foundation for International Development's Friends of Africa summit, the Elevate Festival, the Alliance of Nigerian Entrepreneurs gathering, the RPA Women Entrepreneur Awards Gala, the Federation of African Canadian Economics' Small Business Sunday event, the Toronto Small Business Forum, and the Misfit Ventures Misfits Unleashed event.

During these engagements, Minister Valdez highlighted the federal government's groundbreaking investments—through programs like the 2SLGBTQI+ Entrepreneurship Program, the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy and the Black Entrepreneurship Program—that are helping fight the systemic barriers under-represented entrepreneurs face. She also spotlighted federal government investments in inclusive venture capital and Futurpreneur, as well as support for Indigenous entrepreneurs.

Minister Valdez also updated entrepreneurs on federal investments to help small businesses adopt digital tools and innovations, including the $2.4 billion committed in Budget 2024 to secure Canada's artificial intelligence (AI) advantage. This includes $200 million in the Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative, which will help bring new AI technologies to market and accelerate AI adoption by small businesses across the country. She also mentioned the Canada Digital Adoption Program, which has helped more than 60,000 small businesses improve their digital capabilities and adopt e-commerce platforms.

The Minister wrapped up her SBM-related activities on October 30 by announcing a new partnership between the First Nations Health Authority and the CAN Health Network that will help over 200 First Nations communities across British Columbia access health care innovations from Canadian start-ups. Start-ups in the health care sector have expressed that they face unique challenges breaking into the new market and increasing uptake of their technologies. The federal government's investment in the CAN Health Network is connecting innovative health care providers with promising start-ups that are offering made-in-Canada solutions to meet their unique needs and challenges.

Quotes

"Small businesses are the heart of our communities and the backbone of our economy, employing nearly 8 million hard-working Canadians. It was incredible to spend Small Business Month celebrating their invaluable contributions and meeting key organizations that are dedicated to helping entrepreneurs thrive. Our government will continue to have the backs of small businesses from coast to coast to coast, whether they're just starting out, looking to grow or striving to extend their reach into new markets."
– The Honourable Rechie Valdez, Minister of Small Business

Quick facts

• The Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses is a refundable tax credit to return a portion of federal fuel charge proceeds directly to eligible businesses.
  • Businesses will not have to apply for this rebate. The Canada Revenue Agency will determine and automatically issue the rebate amounts for eligible businesses based on the payment rates of each applicable province for the corresponding fuel charge years, as specified by the Minister of Finance.
  • The rebate will be available to eligible Canadian-controlled private corporations that had 499 or fewer employees in Canada throughout the calendar year in which the applicable fuel charge year began.
  • The federal fuel charge currently applies in the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan. The Government of Canada does not keep any direct proceeds from pollution pricing. All direct fuel charge proceeds are returned in the province or territory of origin.
• The Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry in Canada was first released in 2010 and was last updated in 2015.
  • All major payment card network operators in Canada incorporate the code into their rules, making it binding on all their network participants: issuers, acquirers and payment processors.
  • More than 1 million businesses that accept payment cards in Canada will benefit from the code revisions. In 2023, these businesses accepted approximately 14.1 billion card payments worth $1.2 trillion.
  • The increased transparency and disclosure elements of the revised code require payment processors to notify eligible businesses if network fee reductions will not be passed on in full. Additionally, payment processors must remind those businesses of their right to terminate their contract, enabling them to switch to a processor that passes on the benefits of rate reductions.
  • Under the existing code, businesses have the right to exit their contracts without penalty if they do not receive the full benefits of certain network fee decreases, such as the upcoming small business interchange reductions. But businesses have not always been aware of this right.
• Businesses pay fees to process credit card transactions, with the largest component being the interchange fee paid to credit card–issuing financial institutions, such as banks. The federal government has finalized agreements to lower these fees for small businesses starting on October 19, 2024. Visa and Mastercard have agreed to:
  • reduce domestic consumer credit interchange fees for in-store transactions to an annual weighted average interchange rate of 0.95%
  • reduce domestic consumer credit interchange fees for online transactions by 10 basis points, resulting in reductions of up to 7%
  • provide free access to online fraud and cybersecurity resources to help small businesses grow their online sales while preventing fraud and chargebacks
  • allow small businesses to qualify with each credit card network individually
• Small businesses with an annual Visa sales volume below $300,000 will qualify for the lower interchange fees from Visa, and those with an annual Mastercard sales volume below $175,000 will qualify for the lower fees from Mastercard.
• Non-profit organizations with transaction volumes below these thresholds will also benefit from reduced rates.

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SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Contacts: Callie Franson, Senior Communications Advisor and Issues Manager, Office of the Minister of Small Business, [email protected]; Media Relations, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, [email protected]