Industry Committee on April 23rd, 2020

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

They are incredibly innovative. They are stepping up to serve the needs and are helping our front-line health care workers and those essential workers.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

When are you going to reopen the economy?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I'm going to continue to listen to businesses across the country so that they are supported through this period, and we're going to listen to these businesses as we help them through the restart and a recovery.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

So there's no restart and no timeline. That is mind-blowing. God help us all.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Unfortunately, that is your time.

The next round of questions, for six minutes, goes to MP Longfield.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister Ng, for coming in this morning and for all the great work you're doing with all parties through this crisis we're facing.

I'll be splitting my time with Mr. Manly from the Green Party. The last two and a half minutes of my questions will be turned over to him, because this really isn't a partisan issue. It's something that we should be working on together, so I appreciate Mr. Manly being here and being able to ask questions as well.

My first question is regarding the virtual town halls that you have been involved in, Minister Ng. I know you will be doing one in Guelph on May 7 with the Chamber of Commerce at 6 p.m. We are hearing a lot from our business communities. I've heard that moving the CEBA limit down to $20,000 to help businesses that have one part-time employee at minimum wage is helping them. You mentioned rent, and relief on rent is something that we're working on. I think that's the biggest issue sole proprietors and small businesses are facing.

Would you be able to comment on rent and on the progress we're making there, as well as on anything you're hearing from the town halls that you weren't able to give us in the 10 minutes that you had to speak?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you very much. I appreciate the question.

One of the things we heard very clearly from businesses is about the help they're going to need to manage their bills every single month. Those are those operating costs, of which rent is a key part.

You heard the Prime Minister announce that we intend to support small businesses through the Canada emergency commercial rent support. We hope to announce that very soon. We are in active discussions with the provinces and territories. This is an area of their responsibility, but we all agree that we have to work together to support all of those incredible entrepreneurs and businesses across the country so that they are being helped with rent support.

Rent support is part of operating costs. It's a significant part of operating costs. I have heard from businesses all across the country that they are being helped with the $40,000 interest-free loan, of which $10,000 is forgivable. This is the kind of bridging cash flow work we are doing to help businesses. You heard me say earlier that over 380,000 business owners have already been approved for that loan.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you. May 1 is coming, so I hope we hear about that rent support soon as it continues to be a stress point.

Another stress point has to do with other economies, in particular with the United States opening its economy. We have a lot of Canadian small businesses that are in the supply chain for the American companies that may be needing our goods and services. We have BDC and EDC providing some lines of credit to help businesses that are starting even though the rest of the country and customers in Canada aren't able to access their services.

How is that going, in particular with EDC and BDC financing lines of credit? I haven't heard much in terms of how that program's working, if there's progress being made. We have about a minute or so, and then we'll go over to Mr. Manly.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you very much.

We are making progress. What we've done here as part of the business supports, the lending support to businesses—and BDC and EDC absolutely have taken on significant and important roles—is to provide significant government guarantees to financial institutions.

During this very difficult period, we want to make sure that businesses are able to access that lending support through their financial institution, whether it is a bank or a credit union that they work with. Because the banking and credit network exists all across the country and is easily available, more easily available than are the BDC or the EDC office teams, we're making it available through there. Absolutely, they can go to the financial institution, and that's where they're getting the help.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

It's over to you, Mr. Manly.

[Paul Manly, Green, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you very much, MP Longfield, for sharing your time with me. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak and to ask questions.

Thank you, Minister Ng, for being here. I appreciate the openness of the government to respond to emails that we've sent with different issues.

Small businesses in my community are asking about the rent situation as well. There are suggestions that there be some kind of loan that covers 75% of the rent, where 75% of the rent would go to the landlord and 25% would still be covered by the tenants, and that, hopefully, the federal government would forgive part of the loan to the landlords.

There are a lot of small businesses I'm hearing from right now that are really worried about not being able to cover their rent for May. I'm just wondering if there's a plan, and whether that sounds to you like something that would be feasible in terms of a program.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you so much, Mr. Manly. I really want to thank you and, indeed, all colleagues who have been so open in being able to share the issues they have in their own communities.

We're really looking forward to being able to give you that information and give businesses the information about the rent support. I do believe that support is really going to help, because we've been listening to you and colleagues, and businesses in particular, to make sure we get that support out to them.

[Paul Manly, Green, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

I know a lot of businesses really want to get started up again, but they also—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Unfortunately, Mr. Manly, my apologies, but that's the end of your time.

We have our next round of questions.

Mr. Lemire, you have six minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'll ask the first question, and my colleague Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay will ask the subsequent questions.

First, I want to point out that, during the crisis, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business conducted a number of surveys of its members. A total of 77% of respondents said that they lacked the cash flow to pay their suppliers, rent, mortgages and fixed costs; 65% were concerned about their business debt; 35% were worried about having to close their business permanently; and 9% said that they needed help but didn't qualify for programs.

These results were released on April 15. However, since then, there has been the April 17 announcement. I must admit that I was quite satisfied with that announcement. Minister Ng, I emailed you directly to tell you that some of the solutions, especially the funding of fixed costs, should involve the Réseau des SADC.

I'm very concerned about the fact that a number of our entrepreneurs, particularly the very small businesses and the people who pay themselves in dividends, are falling through the cracks. A good announcement was made on Friday, but unfortunately it slipped under the radar. Almost $1 billion is being made available to people who are falling through the cracks. This assistance will be provided through CED or the Community Futures Network of Canada.

However, almost a week has passed and we still don't know the eligibility rules for this funding. How will these measures be implemented and who will actually be eligible?

In light of this situation, as members of Parliament, we have no choice but to give very vague answers to the people in our region who need help and who are in distress. When will we know the eligibility rules and the details of these assistance measures?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Monsieur Lemire. Je m'excuse. I wish I could do this in French, but I'm going to do it in English. I really want to thank you for your advocacy as well and for the work you're doing in your region in northern Quebec.

We've said right from the beginning that we are going to help businesses through this time, and helping businesses means keeping those businesses intact and helping them keep their teams together. I know there are businesses that are continuing to look forward to, particularly, the small business loan support. Know that we are listening and we are going to continue to do that work.

On the regional development agencies, particularly in Quebec.... We have just made an investment to the regional development agencies across the country of a little over $600 million, as well as through Community Futures. This is well known in the region around the support for small enterprises and, together with the many measures we have put in place, is intended to make sure that we don't have businesses fall through the cracks and that we are helping them through this very important and very difficult time. Again, I want to thank you for your work and your advocacy for your businesses.

The last thing I would say is that Innovation Canada, or the Canada Business app, is where we made information available on all the progress. I know how difficult it could be, because there are many—

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Sorry to interrupt you, Minister Ng, but the question was simply “when.”

Since I want to get more questions in, I'll turn the floor over to my colleague Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I'd like to remind you to speak slower to help the interpreters. Thank you.

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

We have onboarded many small institutions across the country as well, which businesses can go directly into to get financial support. Businesses can absolutely be in touch with the regional development agency in Quebec to get that support.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Minister Ng. As I was saying, the question concerned the timing of the detailed announcement of these measures.

I'll now give the floor to Mr. Savard-Tremblay.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

I had planned on asking a few questions. Instead, I'll ask the previous question again, since we didn't quite get an answer. When?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

We're working very hard, because we understand how urgent the situation is for Canadian businesses. But I would say that there are many measures that are absolutely available to Canadian small businesses. Going into your financial institution to get access to the small business loan is already there.

The Canada emergency wage subsidy calculator was launched yesterday, to help businesses calculate the wage subsidy support for their employees, and the portal will be open on Monday. For entrepreneurs or sole proprietors who are seeing their income completely decreased, if they're making just a little less than $1,000, the Canada emergency response benefit is already open.

There are many measures that are already available to help our Canadian businesses through this very difficult time. We understand that we need to continue doing the work, and I appreciate your advocacy for them. We will continue to do this work for our Canadian small businesses.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Do I have any time left, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

You have 10 seconds left.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

In that case, I won't have time to ask my questions and I'll save them for later.