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For immediate release
May 30, 2014
(Guelph): Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario and candidate in Guelph, announced the party’s plan to establish a Social Innovation Foundation to provide grants, loans, and mentorship to support young entrepreneurs.
“I bet young people are tired of older people promising to solve their problems for them,” said Schreiner. “When I was a young adult, I knew how to make my own job. I needed seed money, and I needed guidance. I want to provide that kind of support for young entrepreneurs to make their vision for a better future happen.”
Young adults today have more education than any generation that has come before theirs, and skills to start their own businesses. They have knowledge and vision of the world around them that gives them insight into how we can use the resources of the present to solve the problems of tomorrow.
The Green Party would endow the Social Innovation Foundation with $300 million diverted from regional development funds, and further support it through tools such as crowd-sourced funding and RRSP-eligible community bonds.
“I can think of a thousand issues young people with great ideas could address with the support of the Social Innovation Foundation“ said Alex Hill, Green Party candidate in Ottawa West–Nepean. “New problems are emerging, and old problems have new contexts. I trust my peers to come up with great solutions, and I’d be proud to invest in their ideas.”
“Local enterprise, whether for-profit or not, is the engine of economic growth and thriving communities,” said Schreiner. “I want to provide support for young adults to make their vision for a better future happen.”
The Green Party is committed to bringing honesty, integrity, and good public policy to Queen’s Park.
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Media contact: Candice Lepage
519.362.9472
candicelepage@gpo.ca