The social economy provides a diverse range of goods and services, and employment opportunities through volunteer networks at the community level that neither the private sector nor government is well positioned to meet. Our programs are a wonderful marriage of social, economic and community development. The social economy meets a combination of economic and social objectives at the community level. Many presentations made in the consultations focused on the contribution and potential that the social economy could play in the province s overall jobs and growth agenda. It was repeatedly stressed throughout the consultations that a balance needs to be struck between larger scale developments and the need to foster the growth of small enterprises in all areas of the province.
Small businesses create more jobs each year in Canada than any other component of the economy.
The small business sector was identified as a major economic opportunity whose potential has yet to be fully tapped in the province, especially in rural areas. Renewed frameworks to guide long term development of traditional, maturing and emerging sectors of the economy are underway. In the interim, government will give the following areas immediate attention in response to strong and clear representation made in the consultations. It should not be interpreted, however, that other areas of opportunity raised in the consultations are not important in government s overall agenda. A comprehensive natural gas development strategy will be prepared in consultation with major stakeholders, in recognition of the economic potential of our natural gas resources and the opportunity to significantly diversify the petroleum industry overall.