Thank you so much, Chair.
It is good to be with you all. I am coming to you from Calgary today.
I was in Ottawa earlier this week, so budgets are fresh on my mind. I was there to review the provisions of the 2024 budget. It's been a busy week for you and for me on that front.
Small and medium-sized businesses that are members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business remain at this moment very fragile. There are lots of concerns, lots of worries about the months ahead. Many businesses have been hanging on by a thread over the last several months, and sadly it would take very little to push them over.
I think we should all pay very close attention to what's happening with respect to both business closures and business start-ups right now. We have a huge number of business closures, up dramatically from previous years, and we have had, over several months, for the first time in recorded history, more businesses closing than businesses opening. That is a very worrisome trend across Canada.
In recent days, some of our data at CFIB has shown a little glimmer of hope on the horizon. The potential of lower interest rates may provide some help to small and medium-sized companies. However, we also have to put that in the context of what's happened over the course of the past few months considering there have been four federal tax increases since January 1—an increase in Canada pension plan premiums, an increase in employment insurance premiums, a significant increase in the carbon tax on April 1 and a more modest increase, but an increase nonetheless, on liquor taxes across Canada.
With respect to the substance of the piece of legislation, Bill C-59, there are three big categories we've paid attention to. One of them is intergenerational business transfers. Another is employee ownership trusts, and the third is amendments to the Competition Act. On all three of these files, the legislation does, I think, move the ball forward.
We are pleased that the legislative changes being proposed for the intergenerational business transfers don't seem to dramatically veer from the intent of the private member's bill that was adopted by the House of Commons, so that is a good thing. However, we do worry that there may be a lot of administrative procedures gumming up the works. Some tax experts have told us that there are going to be 12 different tests to determine the legitimacy of an intergenerational business transfer. I worry about the red tape and paperwork we are creating through that process, recognizing that we want to make sure that these are valid transfers nonetheless.
On employee ownership trusts, there has been some positive momentum, in both the subject of Bill C-59 and this week's budget. We are particularly encouraged by the allocation of a capital gains exemption of up to $10 million with respect to transferring a business. That's not in this legislation, but I imagine it will be in the implementation of the current budget, and that is good news. We think this is a good pathway for small and medium-sized firms and we are pleased to see this moving forward.
Also, there are some good amendments to the Competition Act. Canada has fairly weak competition laws, generally speaking. Small firms really do need strong competition law to prevent the creation of monopolies and oligopolies, and we support some of the amendments that have been proposed.
I'll leave it there. I suspect I may get a question or two about the 2024 budget. I am happy to take any of your questions on this or on the previous one.