As part of its fiscal year 2009-2010 budget, the Government of Ontario will cut the general corporate income tax rate to 10 percent by 2013. The Globe and Mail of Toronto reports that the cut will occur in a multi-stage process, with the rate dropping from 14 percent to 12 percent on July 1, 2010, then being reduced in three additional stages to 10 percent. Businesses in the manufacturing and processing sectors -- as well as mining, logging, farming, and fishing -- will see the rate drop from 12 percent to 10 percent on July 1, 2010. Small business rates will drop from 5.5 percent to 4.5 percent on that same date. The Globe and Mail quotes Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan as saying that the tax reforms will make Ontario "one of the most competitive jurisdictions in the industrialized world for new investment." The new fiscal year begins on April 1.