Finance committee  Not directly, though we did provide input into the consultations that took place on the luxury tax over the course of the last couple of years.

Finance committee  We don't have that assessment, no.

Finance committee  Not that I know of, but I defer to our colleagues at the Conseil du patronat to see if they maybe know more than I do. We don't represent the aerospace sector, so I couldn't speak to that group.

Finance committee  The Canada emergency business account loans were probably most used by small companies. Essentially, they were only targeting smaller companies. They could access them, and more than 900,000 did so. As a result, as we've learned, the debt that's been accumulated by small businesses has been quite dramatic.

Finance committee  Certainly. We did ask our members right after the budget, in trying to explain to them some of the highlights of it, what they thought of it and whether they thought it was a budget that was good for small business. Unfortunately, very few felt it was a budget that was good for small business.

Finance committee  Certainly. Any time you introduce a new tax, it's going to have that impact. The group that we heard the most from when it was first introduced was, as I said earlier, the boating industry. Marinas, for example, which are often small companies, were very worried about the impact this would have on their businesses.

Finance committee  That's right.

Finance committee  Sure. Essentially what we're looking for is a plan. We not suggesting that the deficit needs to be eliminated immediately. We know that's not realistic, given everything that's happened, but to have more of a plan that looks at how we're going to actually eliminate the deficit over time and start bringing down the debt—that's what we're looking for.

Finance committee  But where does the money come from? It comes from the economy, but in order for the economy to continue to thrive, we have to make certain investments to make sure people can continue to build up the economy to where it needs to be. Small businesses are an absolutely integral part of our overall economy in Canada, representing 50% of GDP.

Finance committee  Correct.

Finance committee  That would be a general ask from the CFIB, only because we saw that EI rates are going to be slated to go up in January after three years, and we believe we need to think about something that we can do, given that CPP rates are also going to be increasing at that point in time. We're more generally asking the government to consider some policies that may help offset some of those increased costs that are coming.

Finance committee  I suspect you're talking about the COVID benefits. Is that correct?

Finance committee  We're not opposed to those benefits now ending. We know they ended about a week and a half ago. The piece that we're still very concerned about, however, is the amount of debt that is still being held by small businesses across the country. It's pandemic-related debt, I should say.

Finance committee  We have been advocating strongly at the provincial level to do more. We feel the provinces didn't step up for the very reasons you just talked about. They had money that was given to them and provided to help with COVID-related issues. We have been actively pursuing provinces over the course of the last couple of years and as recently as a few months ago to suggest to them that as the level of government that made the decisions of when businesses had to be restricted or not, they had a responsibility as well to help those businesses through that.

Finance committee  Yes. We were at 110,000 prepandemic. It went down to 95,000 during the pandemic. We're hoping to rebuild.