Thank you very much.
My name is Shalini. I represent a food-manufacturing business out of Scarborough, Ontario. I'm the third generation to join my family's company. My father came here through the Idi Amin expulsion from Uganda, Africa. We have been manufacturing East Indian snacks and sweets in Toronto for the last 36 years.
The impact of this, with all of the other policies and changing workplace legislation, especially in Ontario, is a direct impact on our growth. We currently employ 120 people. In food and beverage manufacturing, there's a very low margin and, being an East Indian food manufacturer, our direct competition is from India. One would say that we cannot compete on a one-on-one basis, so our R and D and our niche market is where it kicks in. Our products carry the “Made in Canada” name. We are very proud to be able to write that on our products, but that will only take us so far when we are not able to compete on a global scale. Currently, all of our growth and any profits that are made are put back into our business to ensure that we are growing and that we can continue to strive.
Energy pricing plays a big role in this when 65% of our bill is the global adjustment and, on top of that, we're paying 16¢ and 17¢ a kilowatt hour. For a lot of the programs in terms of the subsidies that are given, or the ICI program that was proposed, a lot of small businesses cannot actually apply, or it is a very convoluted process and they can't participate even if they want to. Our company is too small to be part of the ICI program, but we are too big to receive the rebate. We are still continuing to pay astronomical amounts of money for our energy, for our electricity and natural gas; however, we cannot be a part of any of the programs.
What we would ask you is to bring that awareness. That was one of the reasons why our company joined the coalition: to bring that awareness. A lot of small businesses do not have the voice to have a direct impact. There's only so much absorption a company can undertake without it starting to impact their growth. We have grown. We have been blessed that we have been able to grow through the recipes my grandfather and my father have developed. We have our own distribution centres in the U.S. Our export sales have grown by 70% in the last three years, which we are very proud of. However, in order for us to continue that growth and to hire the new immigrants—a lot of the time, the first job for a lot of the people who come to this country is in manufacturing—we need to have a level playing field where we can all work together.
This does not mean, as Jocelyn mentioned, that we do not care for the environment, but there has to be a realistic approach. Effective studies have to be done in order to understand what the impact is going to be all around.
Thank you very much.