At the Refined Fool Brewing Company Thursday, Federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair discussed tax rate cuts for small businesses and microbreweries to help support them in hiring workers.
He says his party plans to create jobs and prosperity in Sarnia if elected in October.
While holding Refined Fool's new breakfast stout cleverly called 'One Tax Break Short of a Great Name', Mulcair announced tax rate cuts for small businesses from 11 to 9 per cent, saving them about $1.2-billion a year.
"They are the job creators in our communities, they create 80 per cent of the new jobs across Canada," says Mulcair.
Mulcair also announced a 10 per cent tax credit for microbrewers that produced up to 15,000 hectolitres in Canada in a fiscal year.
Refined Fool Owner Nathan Colquhoun is thrilled to see support for the little guys.
"The small businesses in Sarnia, it's good to see the creativity kind of coming out and people getting behind it, and not just the big businesses but the little guys too," says Colquhoun.
Mulcair was later asked by local reporters about Sarnia's interest in processing oil sands bitumen.
"We will work to try to encourage the creation in Canada of jobs where we're upgrading, refining, adding value to our own natural resources," says Mulcair. "Instead of having 40,000 jobs created in the U.S. with Keystone XL, the NDP would love to see those jobs created here in Canada."
At Thursday's media event, Mulcair added there are nearly 8,300 small businesses like the Refined Fool in Sarnia-Lambton alone.
Microbreweries support an estimated 4,000 jobs throughout the province and employ 1,000 people.
