Mr. Speaker, as we all work to encourage innovation in Canada, I am concerned that some of the things the government is introducing will not help.
Right in Ottawa we have one of Canada's best tech start-ups known as Shopify. This firm is an incredible success story, started by two entrepreneurs who have grown their company into a multi-billion dollar firm. It employs over 1,000 people, has more than 200,000 vendors using its platform, and has a new research office opening in Montreal that will create 150 more jobs.
However, the CEO has publicly stated that the new Liberal plan to tax stock options would have made it extremely difficult for their company to grow and become such a success. The CEO said that many people took massive pay cuts to join his company in exchange for options to purchase equity. He also said that taxing stock options could have a disastrous impact on younger start-ups.
I urge the Liberal government to consider how the measures it is introducing, like taxing stock options, are going to impact our ability to have start-up companies continue to succeed.