Okay. Thank you.
First, the deadline is today. We know there are 200,000 businesses that the CFIB has identified that just can't repay the loan and won't be able to meet the deadline today. These are businesses that closed their doors to protect public health.
You've heard me at committee, citing that the PBO costed out what the one-year extension would cost. It's roughly a 4.2% decrease of outsourcing costs to the highly paid consulting firms that are getting contracts with the government. This is outsourcing that doubled under the Conservative government when they were in power and has gone up fourfold under the Liberal government.
A 4.2% decrease in outsourcing would cover the cost of the extension. Small businesses and their workers are the backbone of the Canadian economy. They provide good-paying jobs. They're jobs with flexibility and familiarity that aren't possible in many corporate settings and jobs in rural and remote places, where other work just isn't available. They aren't giant businesses full of corporate headquarters in Courtenay or Bowser.
Many of my constituents are employed by small and medium-sized businesses. They hold up the local economy, provide essential goods and services, and give locals much greater commerce options. In every community in Canada, small and medium-sized businesses are essential to the culture and community. They sell local goods. They provide community centre services. They offer meeting places and celebration spots. They offer artists a chance to share their work and fund their passion.
During the pandemic, like I said, small businesses around the country stepped up. They closed their doors to protect public health. They lost income for long periods to save Canadian lives. They took on losses to keep their workers employed.
It's not just COVID. They've faced so many hardships in the last few years, from supply chain issues to climate emergencies like the fires in my riding of Courtenay—Alberni. Many of these small businesses were already operating on razor-thin margins. With so much lost revenue over the last few years, they need help catching up.
They closed their doors to protect public health. Many of them took on losses to keep their workers employed. Communities, especially rural ones, depend on local business, and so do the people employed by them. The CEBA program has been an absolute lifeline for these businesses, and we need to make sure that it doesn't turn into an even worse hardship for them.
Data from the CFIB, like I said, found that losing the forgivable portion puts the future of up to 200,000 small businesses in jeopardy. It found that only one-third of the businesses say they have the money to repay their loans for today's deadline. One-third say they don't have the money and they plan to borrow, which is extremely costly to them. One-third say they don't have the money and can't secure a loan. Extending the deadline would give these businesses one more year to keep reducing their principal without being burdened by ever-increasing....
If the Liberals keep refusing to extend the deadline with the forgivable portion intact, these businesses will have to find even more money to spend on interest. That will force them to make hard choices that could put their workers' jobs at risk.
The Liberals have been outright refusing this extension and the Conservatives have been absolutely silent. It seems like they both don't want to admit the truth out loud. They don't want to support small businesses right now, but they have no problem helping rich corporations live high on the hog.
Instead, the deadline needs to be extended to allow them to spend the money they need on scaling up, keeping their workers employed and making investments that benefit their local economies. We can't fully calculate the economic and social benefits of these businesses remaining open and putting that money into their businesses and communities, instead of interest payments, but we know it's huge.
I'm asking the committee to support this motion in support of small business people in their riding and doing the right thing. If they go to any restaurant in their riding, they're going to find it's having challenges recovering from COVID-19. Many businesses in the hospitality industry have not even made a dent in repaying their loans. They're just finding their feet now.
I'm urging the committee to support this motion.