TAN: Would you share with us your professional journey – and did it prepare you to enter politics and to your appointment to your current position and its essential responsibilities?
I was born to a young and entrepreneurial couple in Hong Kong. They wanted a better life for their children, and so, in a story that will be very familiar to many of your readers, they packed up their bags, took what money they had and moved their small children to Canada on a dream.
They dreamt of an inclusive country that saw diversity as its strength. They believed what I know now: that in Canada, if you work hard, anything is possible.
So in the 1970s, they moved to a cold and foreign Toronto and took the risk so many immigrants do, they opened a small business.
As a young girl, I grew up in my parents’ Chinese food restaurant, helping out after school and taking breaks to do my homework in a bustling community restaurant infused with the scent and language of my home country, watching my parents build their dream into a success.
My parents showed me that hope and hard work could get you anywhere in Canada and so I grew up with a deep sense of gratitude to this country – a sense of gratitude that later drove me to public service.
I worked in education and in helping start-ups grow to international successes and when I got the call from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to join his team, I knew what he stood for, those same values that my parents had taught me, and I just couldn’t say no. I joined his team and worked to make sure that the appointments process to Canada’s highest offices was fair, transparent and representative of the diversity of Canada.
A couple of years later, I felt the call to run for public office, to serve my country and my community as an elected official and I was very honoured to have been elected by the residents of Markham-Thornhill.
The day that the Prime Minister asked me to be a part of his Cabinet, I was thrilled.
It seemed like my story had come full circle when he told me that I would serve him as the Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion.
I remembered being that little girl, sitting in my parents’ small business and the pride I felt for them. I was deeply moved to be able to represent and advocate for small businesses like my family’s from coast to coast to coast.
TAN: There are those who feel that most citizens are not getting their fair share of benefit, in particular to help them advance in our society. It seems to be critical to have a platform that can establish a better social, economic and political integration. What are your thoughts on this subject and how are you planning to tackle this issue?
Ng: During the last election, Canadians made a clear choice between the Conservative plan for austerity and cuts, and the Liberal plan to invest in the middle class.
When we came into government in the fall of 2015, unemployment was high, wages were stagnant, and consumer confidence was low.
Today, Canadians can see they made the right choice. Our economy is one of the fastest growing in the G7, we have created more than 900,000 jobs, unemployment rates are at a historic low and middle class families are significantly better off.
We have lifted 280,000 children out of poverty with our Canada Child Benefit.
To help students get ahead, we increased Canada Student Grants.
To make it easier for small businesses to succeed and create more jobs, we cut taxes for small businesses.
With this budget, we are continuing to put Canadians at the heart of everything we do and ensure that our economy is inclusive and that the benefits of our growth are felt by all, this includes women, indigenous people and youth.
With our new budget we are going to make it easier for Canadians to afford post-secondary education, buy a house and retire with confidence.
TAN: We believe Canada’s future will rely greatly on how well we integrate newcomers into our communities and so the need arises for a proper structure that offers a good program and source for integration. What reassurance might you have for our youth and the Afric community at the present time and for the future process of integration?
This is a really important question and I completely agree with the sentiment both from my personal experience and upbringing as well as from the standpoint of good governance and inclusive growth.
On immigration, our government has made significant progress in reducing immigration we inherited in 2015 and have successfully reunited families and welcomed new Canadians. But we know that it isn’t just about making immigration policy work, it is also about what happens after newcomers arrive. How do we make sure newcomers can integrate and participate in the economy in a fulfilling way?
To this end, we have developed newcomer employment pilot projects as well as invested in helping newcomer entrepreneurs start their businesses with capital from Futurpeneur.
We have also invested $19 million to address the challenges facing Black Canadians as well as invested in black Canadian youth and anti-racism initiatives.
In fact, just recently in Ottawa, I met with black Canadian entrepreneurs to discuss how our government can better support them along the business cycle and ensure that our economy fairly represents black innovators and business leaders. It was a really productive discussion that I look forward to continuing next month when I attend the Black Chamber of Commerce in Toronto.
TAN: Small business owners have long been credited with being the driving force of our communities. They have impacted economies across the country and been a kind of positive inspiration for the next generations. We’ve noticed less support, and almost negligence and resentment to the challenges they face. What’s your view of this and your approach?
I hear this narrative a lot, that small businesses feel neglected by government and I have worked tirelessly to address it. Since becoming Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion this summer, I have had the privilege of meeting with 4000 small businesses from Coquitlam to Yellowknife.
I will share with you what I have shared with them, that this is a small business friendly government and that we have the backs of small business owners.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau always says that small businesses are the backbone of our economy and I couldn’t agree more. After all, they make up 98% of all Canadian businesses and employ over eight million hard working Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
They are the restaurants, stores, services and artists we love as well as the high-growth companies that are innovating across sectors and creating middle-class jobs.
As a small-business-friendly government, we’re working hard to reduce red tape and make it easier to do business by lowering the Small Business Tax Rate to 9% – one of the lowest rates in the world; getting credit card companies to lower the fees they charge businesses when their customers use credit cards; and making unprecedented investments to help small businesses start up, scale up and access new markets.
Importantly, because our government believes that diversity is our strength we also have programs specifically designed to help those traditionally underrepresented in our economy like women, youth and Indigenous people succeed.
TAN: What is your wish for Canada and what inspires you most in life.
We are living in a time where people are becoming afraid and turning inward. Around the world, we are witnessing people close their doors and their hearts and I worry that we are forgetting that what makes Canada strong, is our diversity and inclusiveness. I am an immigrant and Canada’s openness and kindness is what gave me a life that I am so grateful for and I don’t want us to lose that. I want Canadians to continue make a choice: a choice to be brave, to be open and to embrace our differences for the social and economic benefit