The Greater Collingwood Small Business Enterprise Centre and the Collingwood Chamber of Commerce held a special open house on October 20th, 2008, to celebrate Small Business Week in Collingwood.

Mayor Chris Carrier welcomed everyone on behalf of the Town of Collingwood and as a small business operator himself.

Special guest Jason Hildebrandt provided an overview of some of the key government R&D, export, finance and training programs.

A Canadian federal government study estimates that small business accounted for 80 percent of total job growth for the 10 year period between 1993 and 2003, or 747,000 new jobs.

Industry Canada defines a small business as a company with fewer than 100 employees, and Statistics Canada says there were just over one million companies across the country fitting that description in July 2008, and this number is no doubt even larger as it doesn't include self-employed entrepreneurs.

Put another way, 98 percent of firms in Canada fall into the small business category, and approximately 139,000 new ones are created each year.