Thank you, Chair.
And thank you, Minister, for being here this afternoon.
It's clear that Canadians want, and expect, their government to focus on ensuring that the government has a long-term plan to safeguard the retirement income system.
Having said that, I hold round tables every Friday morning in my riding for an hour with small business people, and what's clearly apparent with a lot of small businesses is that the people who work for them are not just employees; they're like family in a lot of cases. A lot of these small business owners would like to offer them an option of a pension or security to retire with some kind of dignity.
To a person, to a business, and I've probably heard from about 75 small businesses in my riding in the last six months, every single one of them has praised the PRPP proposal.
For those who aren't enlightened, could you please expand on how this is so beneficial for small business, and some of the advantages?
I know we've heard the Canadian Federation of Independent Business speak about it, but for small businesses out there who don't have a voice—whom you heard from when you were crossing the country and who I hear from when I hold my business round tables every Friday morning—could you please talk about that and how beneficial this would be to a lot of those businesses?