Evidence of meeting #120 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
Ms. Mitchell, very briefly, this is a longer discussion, but I heard you when you asked for the extension of the CEBA repayment. What you were asking for, if I understood you correctly, is an extension of the rebate portion. Is that right?
We extended the CEBA repayment, but if you go beyond January of next year, you don't get the gifted portion of the rebate back.
I have people in my community who are small business owners and are—
12:10 p.m.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
Mr. Chair, on a point of order.
The interpreter reports that the witness is speaking too far from his microphone. He should bring it closer.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
Excuse me. I'll move the microphone closer.
I'm almost done.
This is not a rhetorical question. It's really.... As an elected representative, I face this challenge. I have folks in my community who are small business people who echo what you're saying. I then have people in my community who are small business people who say, “Wait a second. I knew what the rules were. I worked really hard to meet that repayment deadline and the terms of the loan that were extended.”
What would you say to those folks?
I'm sure those folks exist in your community and in communities across the country. They worked really hard, made sacrifices and did what they had to do. I appreciate, of course, that every business person faces different challenges. I'm not suggesting that people who want an extension didn't work hard. I'm not suggesting that.
What I'm asking is how we make sure that we're doing right by business people and the important economic contributions they make, but are fair to those who also made those sacrifices or worked very hard to meet the repayment deadlines that were originally set.
What would you say to those folks? That is my question.
12:10 p.m.
Alex Mitchell
Certainly, when it comes to these types of issues, the government has difficult questions to answer. In terms of the CEBA loans and those who were able to repay them, that's excellent and that's exactly the situation we want to see. We want to see businesses thriving and being able to take advantage of funding when it becomes available to weather those storms.
There are still those who are struggling with valid businesses that employ people in their local communities. If this is going to be the last thing that prevents them from continuing, we don't think that's acceptable. We want to ensure that they have the support they need to weather the storms that are ahead, and to not have them continue to face this challenge and this enormous burden of this repayment deadline that looms over so many small business owners.
We understand the complexity of navigating both, but for those who really need it, I think it's important to conceptualize and remember that those are employers who are employing our neighbours and providing local jobs to our community members.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you.
Thank you, MP Baker
I'm about to thank the panellists.
You know, MP Ste-Marie just mentioned everybody who really makes this all happen: our clerk, our analysts, our interpreters, our technicians and everybody else. However, who we really have to thank are our witnesses, who take time out of their very busy days to come here and inform our committee, in these pre-budget consultations, through their testimonies, through the many answers that they give to the members' questions and also through their briefs.
If there's anything else that you'd like to submit to our committee that maybe was not dealt with here today at the table, we'd ask that you send that directly through our clerk.
You are our final witnesses for this study, which we hope to finish, hopefully, by the end of the year. We'll cross our fingers that we're able to hand over our report to the House of Commons and then through to the finance minister.
As we conclude this meeting, I want to, on behalf of the committee, thank you again for having us here in beautiful British Columbia, in Vancouver, and for your testimonies.
Members, you received a note about sharpening your pencils, looking through everything and starting to get into some of the preliminary recommendations to help out our analysts on that report. We said Wednesday, end of day. We will have more time to get more in, but please start honing in on the recommendations that you feel are most important for this year's pre-budget consultations and report.
Thank you very much. That will conclude our meeting. We are adjourned.