Finance committee  That's probably what would happen, yes.

Finance committee  Our members support free trade agreements, yes.

Finance committee  We are actually currently collecting information about the changes that occurred in the EI system to better understand the impacts. I should state right up front that we support the intent of those changes, that we want to find ways for making sure we can get people to work and back to work, off the EI system, because it's meant to merely help people through a transition from job to job.

Finance committee  Yes. In fact, in our survey that we just shared with you, it was one of the issues that our members are telling us would help them maintain and grow their businesses. We were certainly asking the government to consider the erosion of the small business rate as the general corporate rate came down, and we'd like to see some consideration now given for a plan for the small business rate to start coming down as well.

Finance committee  Thank you for the opportunity for us to be here today. CFIB is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization representing more than 109,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Canada that collectively employ more than 1.25 million Canadians and account for $75 billion in GDP.

Industry committee  I get this all the time. I apologize to the translators. Interestingly, about one in five is not using the Internet for business purposes, a proportion that has actually not changed since 2005. Overall, small businesses use the Internet in three general ways. They use it for information, including networking and training; they use it to market their business, and this could be through their own website or other sites or by purchasing online advertising; and third, they use it to sell their products and services.

Industry committee  Thank you, and thank you for the opportunity to be here today. CFIB is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization representing more than 108,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Canada who collectively employ more than one and a quarter million Canadians and account for $75 billion in GDP.

Government Operations committee  Thank you.

Government Operations committee  Well, specifically in the United States. I have less knowledge of other countries.

Government Operations committee  In that particular area, yes.

Government Operations committee  There are other parts of the United States I would suggest perhaps not looking into.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. We have been advocating for this idea of perhaps having OSME be the body to look at the bundling project, for example, making sure the contracts aren't too big and advising departments that they need to cut them back. We are trying to use that as an example of how we can perhaps improve on making procurement more accessible for small firms in Canada.

Government Operations committee  Our position on that has been that we need to have a debate about it. We know we have free trade requirements around the world, and we are big advocates of encouraging free trade. However, there have been a number of instances where Canadian firms feel like they are being shut out because of the low-cost component of a lot of the contracts that are coming forward by international bidders.

Government Operations committee  Well, it's always tough, and on this one I have to say that we haven't made our final decision on CICP either because we'd like to see what the outcomes are. And we are pleased that it's not a direct subsidy because that would have been more difficult for us. Rather it's just paying for the testing, which we think is a better approach.

Government Operations committee  On the first question, certainly there is evidence that subcontracting happens. It is primarily in the construction industry, however. The amount of goods and services the federal government purchases in a year are $15 billion. I think some of that should be accessible in a fair and equal way to small and medium-sized companies as well.