Dennis Mills

[Supply, March 8th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. He raises a good point.

The Federal Business Development Bank right now is doing some work in the area of assisting women in business. I cited the example that we had in the riding. They provide this service for any member of Parliament who would like to have a town hall meeting to assist women who want to start their own business. The Federal Business Development Bank will assist any member of Parliament who wants to take on that initiative.

Their counsellor assistance for small enterprise is a good program, but the problem is that it has limited resources. Even though the counsellor assistance for small enterprise charges the business approximately $40 an hour to operate, it costs approximately $80 an hour to manage this particular section of the Federal Business Development Bank. With the budget constraints, that program which is so vital is really restricted in terms of its ability to serve the needs of small enterprise.

I believe, and I think this deals directly with the member's question, that the Federal Business Development Bank's role has been too restricted. I know that there are many members of that bank who would like to be full-fledged competitors of the major financial institutions in he country. We are certainly going to listen to them in the industry committee over the next 60 days.

Whether it be the Federal Business Development Bank, mutual funds, pension funds, le Fonds de solidarité, any funds that can assist women in business, small business in general, any

funds that can compete with the traditional financial institutions in this country, I would support amending the legislation in a way that would allow them to compete with the banks.

[Supply, March 8th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to have the opportunity to participate in this opposition day debate on a motion that we all support.

There is no question about the fact that we in this House are constantly working at initiatives that bring knowledge and sensitivity to providing economic equality between men and women.

To begin with, I would like to talk about a personal experience that I had in my riding about a year ago. A group of women from the riding came to see me on a Saturday morning. Most of them were on social assistance at that time. They were telling me, first of all, that they were all educated but were victims of a rather rough economy in the last few years. They had their own strengths in terms of entrepreneurship and felt with a little bit of assistance they could start their own business. They asked whether our office could give them some help in starting their own business.

I was not really equipped at that moment in time but said that I would look into what the Federal Business Development Bank did in terms of supporting women who wanted to start in business. Within a month we set up a little conference, women in business, on how to start one's own business.

We expected that at the first meeting perhaps 40 or 50 women would show up, women who would be interested in starting their own home based business, a corner store or a specific craft that they wanted to market or sell.

About three days before the event we started getting letters, applications and requests to come to this meeting. Over 500 women showed up for this women in business conference on how to start a business. During the question and answer period I listened to the frustration that women have in starting their own business. Our educational system is not geared toward being

sensitive on how to help women get into business. Our financial institutions are not geared toward helping women who want to start their own business.

In the statistics in terms of women who are either leaders or at the board level of our major businesses in Canada, as a country we have really not supported women in senior positions in this country.

This first meeting led to subsequent meetings where we brought in executives from among the few women around our city who were experienced in business. We asked them if they would be mentors for others who wanted to start, who wanted to learn, who wanted to advance or who wanted to upgrade their skills. We developed a series. After about four or five of these meetings, and I do not think we had a meeting with less than 300 women, we discovered that this need for a business centre for women was absolutely essential if we were going to really give this area of women's entrepreneurship a real solid footing.

The Minister of Human Resources Development in the last couple of weeks has given us some tentative support for getting this going. It is an example of a concrete initiative.

Right now women owned or partnered businesses employ more people in the United States than all the Fortune 500 companies put together. When we are facing a period of deep unemployment in our country I believe that by making sure that the resources that will support women getting into business are there will go a long way in getting people back to work.

We talked in the last budget about all the initiatives related to small business. We have to be very specific when we go into these various areas that we are sensitive to making sure that whether it be in the banking area or whether it be in special education or retraining that the whole area of women in business is looked at.

As the leader of the New Democratic Party said earlier today, this is an area where all of us are going to have to work at with a little bit more focus. I do not think that there is any way that we can be proud of the record in this area right now.

My remarks are going to be very short today. The message is that we are going to do our best in our industry committee, especially in the area with banks. We will make sure that all of these issues that are related to small business have very special focus, especially on the needs that women require in order to get into the area of entrepreneurship.

[Supply, March 8th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by saying to the leader of the New Democratic Party that I support everything in her remarks. I was listening to her speech in my office while working on another issue and I came over here because I felt that she, as always on this issue, is right on track.

I would like to comment on a particular part of the hon. member's speech where she talks about women in business. In the United States right now women owned or partnered businesses employ more people than all the Fortune 500 companies combined. The emerging force is women as the real leaders in entrepreneurship in North America, not just in words. It is reality. The facts and statistics are there. It is one of the reasons

why the Minister of Human Resources Development is going to be supporting momentarily the opening of Canada's first women in business centre in downtown Toronto. We can see the tremendous success that is emerging from women owned or partnered businesses.

We are finding that one of the most difficult issues facing women who are either starting a home based business or moving from a home business into a larger business is that the financial institutions, the banks, do not get it or cannot seem to read the statistics of success. Canadian bankers will say that women repay loans better than men. This is all statistically recorded. Still we hear that women owned or partnered businesses have a very difficult time in accessing capital.

In the member's opinion or because of her experience, could she give us some reasons why financial institutions are so restrictive in their attitudes when they are loaning money to women who want to start or expand their businesses?

[Borrowing Authority Act, 1994-95, March 7th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I share the hon. member's view that all of us in this House of Commons have a collective responsibility to address the nation's debt. I do not think we could find a member of Parliament who would disagree with that objective.

I would like to illustrate for the hon. member where we disagree on how to reduce that debt. The Reform Party has said day after day in this House of Commons that we have not made enough cuts in the current fiscal framework of this nation. There may be some areas where we could have made some more cuts but I would like to illustrate an example of where I think we have cut too much.

It is in the tourism sector. Tourism is this country's largest employer. It is a $28 billion industry. The national and international marketing budget for Tourism Canada is only $15 million. I personally think if we invested a couple of hundred million dollars and encouraged people to come here that would be a way of creating jobs.

[Borrowing Authority Act, 1994-95, March 7th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by congratulating my colleague from Scarborough Centre on his maiden address to the Parliament of Canada. I know that the words he delivered to Canadians today are not only words with this

member but they mirror the action that he has taken not only during the last four months as a member but also in his previous role in the community.

I have a very specific question I would like to put to the member for Scarborough Centre and it has to do with an issue on which he campaigned vigorously during the last election. It concerns access to capital for small business.

I would like the member to elaborate to the House and to the rest of Canada about some of the discussions I know he has had with me and others in our party about that particular frustration and what he recommends we can do to help rectify the problem.

[Borrowing Authority Act, 1994-95, March 7th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to suggest to the member that the single biggest factor that could contribute to the government's reaching its revenue targets is the member's ceasing his campaign of trying to separate Quebec from the rest of this country.

I listened carefully to the member's remarks. I believe the pressure that we are receiving from international borrowers right now has to be affected by the talk of separation that goes on in this country.

Every economist in the world would agree that confidence is the most important factor in any economic equation. We must have confidence in the community, confidence in the country. When people look at our cities, I suggest right now especially the city of Montreal, the province of Quebec, there has to be a nervousness when members here talk about separation.

I would like to ask a very simple question of the member. Does he agree that the talk about separation is the most damaging factor in putting confidence back into the economy of this country?

[Borrowing Authority Act, 1994-95, March 7th, 1994]

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, I did not think I was heckling the member. I was merely pointing out some factual information that did not seem to be a part of the address. I certainly did not think that was out of order. I have been here, not as long as you, but for six years and-

[Borrowing Authority Act, 1994-95, March 7th, 1994]

Existing budgets.

[Borrowing Authority Act, 1994-95, March 7th, 1994]

Where would you cut?

[Borrowing Authority Act, 1994-95, March 7th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, through you to the member, I would like to congratulate her on her remarks. There are some points about the budget that she did not include in her remarks.

She said that we were afraid to take on the tough decisions. I believe that is not an accurate assessment. We did announce policy reviews in our social security system, in defence, foreign aid, the goods and services tax which is being reviewed in committee right now for an alternative. We will begin our study in the industry committee in two weeks where we will have public accountability of financial institutions in Canada: a program review, overlap and duplication, tariffs and the paper burden. All of these are concrete actions taking place right now.

It is important we not leave in the public's mind the thought that the Reform Party is the only party interested in reducing or eliminating waste. If people can bring forward ideas on how to eliminate or reduce waste in a particular area we welcome their letters, phone calls or faxes. It is the same type of information the member receives as well.

The government has taken a very tough stand on reducing the deficit and our net savings over three years will be $20.4 billion. We have only been in government for three and a half months, but we have to put some hope back into the economy and get some job creation going. Any further cuts would cause the fragile economy to slip back into a recession.