I would like to take this opportunity to wish all small business owners and entrepreneurs a happy and successful 2024. I am excited to head into the new year as your Minister of Small Business, and continue the incredible work we have been doing to support small and medium-sized businesses from coast to coast to coast.
Since taking on this role in July, I have been meeting with small business owners, chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and business improvement associations across the country to listen to how our government can empower and support small and medium-sized businesses to reach their full potential.
We’ve taken your suggestions and have been putting them to work. During the last five months, we have finalized agreements with Visa and Mastercard to reduce credit card fees, saving small businesses up to $1 billion over five years; invested nearly $4 million in the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub to continue supporting women entrepreneurs; announced $500,000 for the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business to support Indigenous entrepreneurs; committed nearly $3 million to support nearly 2000 women entrepreneurs across the country alongside École des entrepreneurs du Québec; and launched the 2SLGBTQI+ Entrepreneurship Program Ecosystem Fund for 2SLGBTQI+ entrepreneurs. And we are not stopping there.
Advocating for the voice of small and medium-sized businesses and bringing your ideas to decision-making tables has been the opportunity of a lifetime. Small businesses are not small, you make up over 97% of the economy and are invaluable members of each of your local communities. As a former small business owner myself, I know first-hand the challenges – as well as the rewards – of starting your own business. It is a deeply personal journey, and ensuring that I can support small businesses to start up and scale up is a job I take as seriously as you do yours.
Canada is a better place because of the uniqueness and diversity that small and medium-sized businesses bring to our neighborhoods, and I want to thank you for the work you are doing day in, and day out.
Happy New Year!
Honourable Rechie Valdez
Minister of Small Business
The Honourable Rechie Valdez was elected as the Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville in 2021. She is a mother of two, wife, Canadian entrepreneur, television personality, and community advocate. She is the first Filipino-Canadian woman elected as a Member of Parliament and appointed to Cabinet. Before politics, Minister Valdez owned and operated a small bakery business and was the host of a TV show that shares the stories of entrepreneurs, creators and artists. Prior to that, she worked in corporate banking for 15 years. Born and raised in Zambia, Minister Valdez immigrated to Canada with her family in 1989.
