Thank you.
You should have those two documents I'll be walking you through.
On the first slide, you'll see a little bit about CFIB. We represent more than 105,000 independently owned small and medium-sized business owners across Canada, all of whom are self-employed. Our members come from every region of the country and every sector of the economy. While all 105,000 members are technically self-employed, about 12,000 actually have no paid help.
According to the most recent labour force survey, which you'll see on the next slide, from Statistics Canada, there were over 2.7 million self-employed Canadians, which represents about 16% of the current workforce. The numbers actually went up since September, partially offsetting some of the job losses in that same month. In fact, there has been an increase of more than 100,000 self-employed Canadians in the past 12 months, which is an increase of 3.9%. We see this as good news, as many of these Canadians have opted to go out on their own, and it is from these enterprising individuals that new ventures and jobs will be created.
In fact, Canada, if you look at the next slide, has seen significant growth in self-employment over the last couple of decades, especially among those who are incorporated. The chart on slide 4 is drawn from the 2006 census, which shows that while there was an 8.5% increase in employees between 2001 and 2006, there was an 18.6% increase in the incorporated self-employed during the same period.
Who are these people? Today, about two-thirds of self-employed are men, and about one-third are women. Growth in female self-employment grew dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, far more quickly than among men, but this pace of growth seems to have slowed somewhat during the first half of this decade. It remains healthy, though, with the growth of 8.4% among female self-employed versus 6.5% growth for male self-employed during the same period. This is all outlined in much more detail in the document A Nation of Entrepreneurs.
As you can see on slide 5, the greatest growth of self-employed is among those in the age group 45 to 64 years. This is partly due to the demographic shift in the boomer population, and partly because successful business creation often requires significant technical and management skills, as well as good networks often gained through work experience. As a result, I would suggest that among the special benefits included in Bill C-56 there could be the option to access sickness benefits, which may be a greater attraction to the self-employed, given the age and demographics of this population and the difficulty for some of them to purchase private health care coverage.
So why do people do it? Slide 6 shows the results of a national public opinion poll of 900 small business owners and the reasons why they become self-employed. As you can see, the majority did it to take control of their own decisions. One-third did it for lifestyle choices, to better use their skills and knowledge, or as a path to financial freedom.
These results are not surprising when you couple them with the next slide, which shows that those who are self-employed tend to have the highest levels of job satisfaction. In fact, more than half said they found being self-employed to be very rewarding. Why am I sharing this with you? Because I want to make it clear that the vast majority of people becoming self-employed become self-employed because they want to, not because they have to. Recognizing this is important to understanding how they might approach the idea of accessing EI special benefits on a voluntary basis as proposed in Bill C-56.
We did in fact ask our members earlier this year about the concept of extending EI parental maternity benefits to the self-employed on a voluntary basis. Slide 8 outlines how the question was asked at the time, given how little we knew how about how this proposal would work. While the question focused only on parental maternity benefits, it did address the voluntary aspect of the bill, and therefore I believe it does provide a good indication of what Canada's self-employed may think about Bill C-56.
The next slide shows the results, which are based on more than 10,000 responses to this question. As you can see on the left-hand side, a small majority support the concept, 35% oppose it, 9% are undecided, and 3% have no interest in the issue. When we dissect the data further, we see strong support among female self-employed members, with 67% supporting the concept, and among the smallest business owners, with 60% of those with fewer than five employees also supporting it.
As a result of this member feedback, CFIB supports this bill and recognizes that it fills a gap among the self-employed to access EI special benefits when they choose to do so. However, it is essential that the program remain voluntary and that it meets its objective to be self-financed. These principles are key to CFIB's support of this bill.
It's very important for this program to pay for itself, as the general EI account is about to enter a period of steep premium increases come 2011. I do want to say that the current EI rate freeze, which is in effect until the end of 2010, has been a very welcome policy. It has allowed many business owners to hold onto their people during a difficult economic period. However, it has become clear that the government plans to charge back the two-year EI rate freeze to the EI account, which would require the new Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board to pay back an additional $10 to $13 billion to the government, with interest. The only way they can do that is through increasing EI premiums. As they are limited to annual increases of 15¢ for employees and 21¢ for employers, we foresee maximum premium increases for both employers and employees for many years to come, as illustrated on slide 10.
What makes this whole scenario even more frustrating is that there has been a $57-billion surplus accumulated in the EI account from 1994 to 2008. We would have no objection to the government's requiring the CEIFB to pay for the additional EI costs as a result of the current recession if they would repay the $57 billion surplus first. Instead, the new Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board was provided with $2 billion as an initial reserve that, given the scenario I just described, will be easily wiped out in the first year.
We strongly believe that the federal government has a moral obligation to pay back the surplus accumulated from employers and employees. To do this, the government should absorb additional costs and maintain a premium rate freeze until the $57 billion has been paid back over time.
Given this scenario, it would be unacceptable to add even more costs to the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board by subsidizing Bill C-56 through the general EI account. Nor would it be acceptable for the self-employed to wind up subsidizing the general EI account, given the problems it currently faces. As a result, CFIB is calling for strong metrics and regular monitoring of the voluntary EI special benefits program for the self-employed, so that this does not happen. It should be accounted for separately from the general EI account, and premiums for the self-employed should be adjusted accordingly so that it remains self-financed.
In conclusion, the CFIB supports Bill C-56 as long as it remains voluntary and self-financed. There should be strong metrics attached to the program. This means that there should be regular reviews of its costs and revenues and that premiums should be adjusted accordingly, so as not to have it subsidizing the larger EI account and vice versa. We recommend that the bill be analyzed in the context of the skyrocketing EI rates that are coming in 2011.
Thank you.
