The
CONVERSATION
BC Green Party leader Sonia
Furstenau has big ideas for busi-
ness, including ending
NDAs and
instituting a four-day workweek
by Nathan Caddell
Some people might
not be aware of
your business
background, but you
essentially started
your career as an
entrepreneur, right?
In my early 20s, I was married to a bike
shop owner. I took a bookkeeping course
and ended up doing the books there and
stepped in to help run the business. When
I became a single parent a few years later,
I took that skillset and used it as a way to
provide myself with some income while I
was going to school. I did books for small
businesses on a contract basis and worked
for a music store in Downtown Victoria.
Eventually, I became the national admin-
istrator for Results Canada, a non-profit
charity trying to end global poverty. So, in
a 10-year stretch, I went from helping very
small businesses to working in a large orga-
nization and having that insider's view of
administration and finances in both.
Do you miss working with
small businesses?
Yeah, I really liked working for small
business. What I learned through
those years is that the last person
to get paid in a small business
is the owner. There's con-
stant tension and pressure
in a small business. That's
one of the reasons why I
make it a priority to hear
from small businesses
and meet with them, and
that's why we made the
call on raising the thresh-
old on the
EHT [Employer
Health Tax]. Especially in
the last few years, busi-
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B C B U S I N E S S . C A
F E B R U A R Y
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