As Canada's federal election campaign continues, Stephen Harper has promised to continue cutting "red tape" for small business.
The campaign announcement said the federal government will conduct another round of consultations to see which regulations can be further eliminated to make things easier for small business, committed to cut bureaucratic hurdles by 20% and will simplify home office expense deductions.
Business groups highly praised the Conservative government's February 2015 budget, which included lowering the small business tax rate from 11% to 9% and tax benefits for manufacturers.
But economists criticized the budget for placing too much emphasis on small business and adopting policies that will encourage businesses to stay small rather than grow into the larger businesses that tend to contribute more to the economy.
