Thank you.
I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear to discuss youth employment. I will make a brief statement, and then I look forward to answering any questions you have.
I'm the co-founder and CEO of Startup Canada. It's an organization that represents grassroots entrepreneurs across Canada. Before I address the issue of youth unemployment, or youth employment, I would like to give you a quick overview of the Startup Canada story, as youth play a big role in advancing our entrepreneurial future as a country.
In 2012 we completed a cross-country tour, where we visited 40 communities across Canada and received input from 20,000 entrepreneurs and start-up founders. With this feedback, we launched an entrepreneur connect strategy at the grassroots level to help individuals communicate and share experiences together. We have become the voice of entrepreneurs and now are the go-to social media site for entrepreneurs in Canada. We have piloted Startup communities across the country to strengthen community support for entrepreneurs and to share best practices from coast to coast.
We're in St. John's, Fredericton, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, York Region, London, Calgary, Edmonton, Langford, and other communities across the country. We heard from many entrepreneurs that while there may have been support services for them in towns and cities, it was hard for them to know where to go, what organization to go to, and who could address their support requirements in small communities where there might not be the infrastructure. Essentially there was a missing umbrella organization connecting all of the physical and virtual aspects of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Canada.
This is where Startup Canada and its Startup communities network plays a role. It connects accelerators, incubators, colleges, universities, hubs, entrepreneurs, and all of the necessary elements that foster entrepreneurship culture in Canada. In fact, we have a mission to create jobs on an entrepreneurial basis. We have close to 80,000 members at Startup Canada, many of whom are young entrepreneurs, and we expect that number to rise in the next few years.
With regard to youth unemployment, I recently read a report called “StartUp Generation”, commissioned by Intuit Canada on the millennial generation. According to this report, it found that more than half of millennials are most likely to start their own businesses. That's twice that of the average Canadian.
We know from StatsCan that small and medium-sized businesses make up more than half of the business sector GDP composition in Canada. Fostering an entrepreneurial culture in Canada speaks directly to the youth and is far too important for the Canadian economy to simply ignore. Out of those millennials surveyed, 40% are looking for tax breaks and government grants that would encourage entrepreneurship, 30% want fiscal literacy and financial literacy as part of their core education curriculum, 14% want to see more mentorship programs, and 16% want more access to business development services. This tells me that youth do want to start their own businesses, but they just need a little help to get over the hill to make that happen. In fact, the problem is not unique to Canada.
When I founded the National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs in the U.K. in partnership with the government in Britain, we were targeting those youth who needed the support system to become entrepreneurs. Here in Canada, since we launched Startup Canada, several universities and colleges have reached out to have us create Startup campuses within their campuses and join the network. This is a great way to expose students to the entrepreneurial world. It breaks down the silos within the institutions. It's not just the students enrolled in business programs who are exposed to entrepreneurship, but the entire student population, regardless of their enrolment or studies.
All of our Startup communities across Canada from coast to coast are interconnected and can leverage one another and access resources from one another. If you're in Smithers, you can access the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. The strength of the high-tech sector in Waterloo can benefit the strengths of the resource sector in Calgary. Connecting students to this wealth of knowledge and plugging them into the entrepreneurship ecosystem is important to creating jobs and innovation. This is where the true power of Startup communities and Startup campuses can be found.
In closing remarks, we support any investments or measures that foster an entrepreneurial culture in Canada. We believe that cultivating a better entrepreneurship ecosystem will lead to better jobs for young people. The Canadian accelerator and incubator program is a good example. We support the internship program targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises, but we caution that the process cannot be cumbersome for entrepreneurs; otherwise, we risk having a resource that not many SMEs will use. We support investments that are meant to encourage women, and especially young women, to become successful entrepreneurs.
Finally, Startup Canada and its 300 volunteers are working hard to promote an entrepreneurial culture in Canada.
We have facilitated the mentorship of 20,000 entrepreneurs, run activities and daily events, nationwide, on topics ranging from financial literacy to legal structures of companies, and have most recently launched the Startup Canada awards to recognize outstanding achievement in advancing entrepreneurship in Canada.
Thank you.