The New Brunswick government unveiled its 2016-17 budget on Tuesday, bringing forward tax increases and cuts to civil service jobs in an effort to help the province climb out of its near-$450 million deficit.
Now that the budget has been tabled, Kristin O’Connor is hoping Brian Gallant’s government will begin helping more small businesses in the province get off the ground.
READ MORE: New Brunswick budget: tax hikes, civil service cuts, no new highway tolls
This week, O’Connor opened Unplugged, a board game café in Riverview.
“I have had enormously positive feedback so I am really excited,” she said.
However, she said she was disappointed in the lack of financial support she was able to secure from the province.
O’Connor said she was originally approved for provincial funding to help with staff wages and training, but got some discouraging news a few weeks before she opened.
“For training for example there are some government programs that you can apply for, and that I was approved for, that would cover some of the costs for training staff,” she said. “When I actually went to finalize the process, my understanding is that they ran out of funding.”
She expects to re-apply in April, as long as the programs kick back in.
The new budget includes a two percentage point hike to HST and corporate taxes, but small business taxes will not be affected.
O’Connor has managed to employ seven staff at her new café. Steven Leger is her new cook, and said he is grateful to have a job since he was laid off at Co-Op Atlantic. He believes in order to help new businesses thrive, the province needs do a much better job of promoting entrepreneurs who are brave enough to start a small business in such an unstable economy.
“I think if you can promote and show that we are a province about supporting our own, supporting local businesses…and get away from that constant medium that we will bring stuff in, we might do a bit better,” he said.
O’Connor said she plans to access as much financial support as she can from the province this spring in case the money runs out again.
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