I would. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for your question.
One of the key points is something I touched on. Independent operators in restaurants and small business centres across the country are really the heart and soul of local communities. They anchor local communities.
We've seen restaurant owners have no choice but to add debt to their balance sheets in order to survive and to remain open, but the amount of debt is no longer sustainable for many, if not most, and it absolutely cannot be a long-term solution for our industry. That's why we're calling for the subsidy programs to be extended through April 1, 2022, and to be tied to a baseline of 2019. As well, you'll see in our recovery plan that we're calling for a larger portion of the loan programs, like HASCAP, to be forgivable, because asking small business owners to take out debt to pay down debt to pay down debt is a vicious cycle in which, honestly, no one is going to win.
I want to touch quickly on a couple of key points here and point out that as an industry, we employ more people per dollar than any other sector. Again, when you spend $10 in a restaurant, the average establishment keeps less than 50 cents, and the rest goes back to the economy in the form of jobs, food and beverage purchases, contributions to local charities and much more.
There is also a very real taxation difference that translates into a significant return on investment for governments in exchange for supporting restaurants. Every $100 that Canadians spend on groceries generates about $1.20 in taxes. Meanwhile, that same $100 spent at a restaurant represents $13 in taxes that go back to the government, so when I talk about restaurants feeding the recovery, I'm not being facetious. It's generally our best way forward to bring back half a million jobs for women, for visible minorities and for new Canadians, and to ensure that our youth still have access to invaluable first job experiences.