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Canada's Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, Maxime Bernier, celebrated the success and entrepreneurial spirit of the Tamil community in Canada, highlighting their contributions to the Canadian economy.
As part of the Canadian federal government’s pre-budgetary consultations Minister Bernier met with representatives of the Canadian Tamils' Chamber of Commerce (CTCC) in Toronto on Wednesday.
“I can see they have a huge impact, like other small business owners, they’re the true Canadians," Minister Bernier told the Tamil Guardian following the meeting.
“They’re very good entrepreneurs, it’s a plus for us as Canadians to have these entrepreneurs with us,” said the minister, who was Canada's foreign affairs minister during the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka.
Stan Muthulingam, an advisor to the CTCC said the Minister listening closely to input from Tamil entrepreneurs during the meeting, and pledged to take back some of their suggestions and ideas back to Ottawa for the budgetary process.
"It's the first time we're doing budget consultation," Muthulingam told the Tamil Guardian, adding that the Minister seemed receptive to suggestions that new immigrants to Canada receive more information about guidelines for starting small businesses and that the government improve the role of trade commissioners in Canadian embassies around the world to help small businesses export their good and services.
"We have travel, manufacturing, engineering, mobile app developers, accounting firms, consulting, across the spectrum it's a very good group," said Muthulingham, detailing the industries present at the meeting.
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