Mr. Speaker, this is disappointing. Once again, the main idea is “plus one, minus one, equals zero”. It does not mean less. The rest is a vauge intention about how to do it. Reducing red tape is a highly technical endeavour. The government must explain how to achieve that goal.
The other important thing is that the government cannot do what it is doing and say that reducing red tape qualifies as an economic plan. When we sit down with business people, we talk about fundamental issues, such as specific tax cuts for small businesses and a true job creation tax credit of more than $3,000. Again, I mean a real tax credit, not $1,000 applied to employment insurance. We can talk about making it easier to transfer businesses between members of the same family. Making it easier for small businesses to have access to research and development support would also qualify as an economic recovery plan for small businesses, as opposed to merely reducing red tape, particularly since we still do not really know how small businesses can actually do it.