Thank you so much for your question.
Just as I answered in the last question, I think we just have to make it easier, a one-stop shop, for small businesses to meet the regulatory and compliance requirements. Is it fair for a small business owner to really understand the complexities around doing business and being competitive?
What are some of those complexities? There's labelling, for example, as I mentioned earlier. It is very difficult to really understand all the nuances when it comes to labelling. I was looking for a bottle of something I could show so that you could see all the markings, clearly in English and French, but also something as small as the bar code on it as well. There's also the size of the bar code and the registration of the bar code. The first five or six digits are actually registered. Then you have the product number. There's the way the ingredients are listed. Is it a primary or a secondary ingredient? There are so many things and nuances there.
One of the suggestions would be this. I am a small business owner. I want to get a product to market. I have this great idea for jam, tea or whatever food item I've created. I should be able to get the support that I need without having to do what the current situation is, which is to leverage tens of thousands of dollars in consulting fees to only get some suggestions, create that label, and then present that product to the market.
The challenge is when you try to be proactive—I personally have dealt with this—and call the CFIA and say, “I have this product. I have this label. I need some advice.” There's no mechanism set up to provide that advice. It is, “Sorry. We will only provide it if there is a complaint or some enforcement that needs to be taken.” By that time, you've created all these labels, you've created all these products, you have the product in the market, and now you're looking at a recall and potential enforcement.
With the small business hub, essentially, if we had the resources there, you'd be able to get that advice right then and there. In addition to that, you'd be able to get advice on setting up your business and on being more competitive and networking with other local businesses as well.
The others issue is around shipping. I think Canada Post, for example, should have a stake in the small business hub. The reason for this is that if I want to get a product from Ottawa to Mr. Ballingall in the Okanagan Valley, we know that it will be extremely expensive—we all know that—if we go to Canada Post to ship it. Should that be the case? Should we not have small business shipping credits, for example, that could be tied right into that business from Canada Post? Now I have x thousands of dollars that I can apply. Now I can compete. I won't get the preferred rate if I don't have volume. I'm not going to have volume if I'm going to charge somebody $40 for shipping that widget across the country.
There has to be a better way. I think the better way is that if we amalgamate some of these resources to provide that support, we will be able to go from zero to 100 a lot faster.
Thank you. I hope that answers your question.