Status of Women committee  One thing I've appreciated throughout the pandemic is that this has been unprecedented for everybody and for governments too. I do want to give some credit to the government for introducing many different programs and for being open to feedback and making changes to those programs as it has learned about the impacts, but I don't think those impacts have stopped.

Status of Women committee  I really don't mean to be repetitive, but the scope of this pandemic is big, so I feel that in many ways, to make sure we're getting everybody into the programs that currently exist, we need to look at the programs themselves and make sure they're broad enough and inclusive enough to include the people who may find themselves outside of them right now.

Status of Women committee  I'll start. I think the most important thing on rent subsidy is to get it out. It's still not available. We understand it's still going through the Senate this week. Hopefully, once it gets passed, hopefully this week, it will be quickly launched thereafter. December 1 is coming.

Status of Women committee  One question we have outstanding with the government right now is whether the rent subsidy will apply, at least partially, to home-based businesses. Much in the same way that you can deduct expenses for home-based businesses from your income taxes, is there a way that part of the rent subsidy can help with that?

Status of Women committee  It is a big question. It's a tough one to answer in regard to everything. The biggest worries for women entrepreneurs are debt, business cash flow, stress and the worry that their consumers will not come back. Find ways to start to address those and recognize that the programs that currently exist need to be expanded to include a broader array of business owners.

Status of Women committee  Yes. Pharmacare is interesting. A lot of small business owners don't have coverage for themselves because they can't afford it or for whatever reason. They'd love to offer it to their employees, but when you're microsized, it can be very difficult to find health care and pharmacare coverage.

Status of Women committee  I'll respond quickly to say that child care is always going to be an issue for female entrepreneurs. It's something we also saw in a greater degree during the pandemic, given that kids were out of school at the beginning of it. That really highlighted a bit of that issue. Whether universal child care—I know you said “affordable”, and that's an important part of this—should be part of a mandate going forward is something on which we would have to check with our own female entrepreneur members and see how they think about it.

Status of Women committee  I would say that first and foremost, it's about getting them through this current issue, the current pandemic. Essentially, making adjustments to some of the COVID relief programs is going to be important in order for them to make it through. First you have to deal with your immediate issues, and then you need to look at what you can do.

Status of Women committee  First and foremost, when it comes to the more rural businesses, this pandemic has hit everybody very hard. In the rural ridings or rural areas of the country, I think it has been slightly less of an issue only because the small businesses in those communities are more well known.

Status of Women committee  Well, I don't have data specifically for women entrepreneurs, but I do have data more generally in regard to the impacts of the pandemic. We're starting to update that data right now. This is back from July. We're going to be updating it again in a couple of weeks. We have estimated that between 150,000 and 220,000 businesses will likely close as a result of the pandemic.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I'll be focusing my remarks on the impacts of COVID-19 on female entrepreneurs. I'll be walking you through a slide deck that I hope you all have in front of you. Right away, I want to talk a bit about CFIB. It's a not-for-profit member-based organization that represents the interests of independently owned Canadian companies.

International Trade committee  In order to address issues for smaller companies, that's the more important area to tackle. That can be anything like standards that are imposed by certain sectors or certain governments. It can also include—and this is what doesn't get included in this agreement—the subnational levels of government.

International Trade committee  No, I don't think so. Again, I think they're vaguely aware that this is coming, and the sooner it happens, the better.

International Trade committee  I think it's partly from sector to sector. Obviously, as an organization that is multisectoral—we represent businesses of all different types—as I tried to point out, there are elements of CUSMA that also have concerns for us in regard to some of the sectors, and there are others as well.

International Trade committee  Overall, again, it's opportunity. Obviously, as mentioned in the presentation that we made, the United States is the most important country to trade with. When we looked at the feedback from our members as we went through the NAFTA negotiation process in terms of the things that they would like to see, again it came back to that certainty, knowing and understanding what the rules and duties were, not changing things too much but feeling like there was a revived interest in making sure that the trade was going to continue to happen.