Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Kelly, I will start with you.
I found your opening remarks quite dire. You talk about the position that small businesses find themselves in, and really, your sad plea to this government is to not make it worse, yet that's exactly what they are doing.
One of the things that jumped out at me when I read your brief was that you said not to make it worse. First, let me backtrack, because I have to get this in. Your brief talks about putting a freeze on the carbon tax, but of course we know that the government plans to triple, triple, triple the carbon tax. This is my first time saying that on the record, so I had to get my shot in.
To be fair, your brief says, on a finer point, that the carbon tax backstop in backstop provinces is unfair to small businesses, as they contribute almost 50% of the carbon backstop revenues but don't qualify for the significant rebate schemes offered to citizens in the provinces that are affected. You go on to recommend that the carbon backstop be overhauled to provide small firms a rebate scheme that reflects their contribution to the carbon tax.
I have to admit that this point about how the carbon tax is structured has troubled me for a long time, in that it seems inequitable that small businesses don't get the rebate. Could you extrapolate on your policy considerations around that?