Status of Women Committee on Feb. 15th, 2024

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excuse me. I'm going to interrupt you.

Our time is up on that. Perhaps we can ask that you send that information to our committee. We would greatly appreciate it.

We're now going to begin our second round. It's going to be five minutes, and then two and a half minutes each. We will start with five minutes to Anna Roberts.

Anna, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Congratulations, Minister. This is my first opportunity to do that in person.

I would like to pass my time over to Brad as our business critic, because he seems to have the numbers better than I do.

Brad, take it away.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you, Anna.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today, and thank you to the committee members for having me.

Touching upon the women entrepreneurship strategy, in an Order Paper question I received from you, Minister, on June 20, you outlined that it represents a whole-of-government approach, including 20 different federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations.

In your opening remarks you also referenced some of the key criteria that relate to scaling businesses and creating new businesses. Given that you led off with that, I'm assuming that you believe that this program is a success. Maybe you can provide to the committee the number of jobs created since this program was launched in 2018 and the number of businesses that have scaled or moved up from micro to scale business as a starting point.

Thank you.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

That's a good question.

Already today I mentioned in my opening that we have been able to support 22,000 women entrepreneurs, including 10,000 new ones and many more others to—

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

That wasn't my question. My question asked how many new businesses were created and how many were scaled.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Maybe Etienne has that.

[Francis Bilodeau]

I believe it's in the vicinity of about 100,000 created.

Are you asking how many closed or how many scaled?

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

It's both. How many businesses were created and how many were scaled under the funding under the WES?

[Francis Bilodeau]

We do have those numbers. I don't know if you have them handy, Etienne. If not, we will be happy to get them to you.

[Etienne-René Massie]

Yes. We have numbers. We'll get you the numbers for sure.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce business development lab's fourth quarter report, the 2023 “Canadian Survey on Business Conditions Report”, reported that business sentiment is very low, with under-represented owners and microfirms especially having the weakest economic outlook.

Would you agree with the findings of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

What I can say is that yes, small business entrepreneurs are having a challenging time right now. They are experiencing a difficult time for sure.

Again, as I've said, we've provided many different supports to help small businesses.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you.

The report goes on to state that cost-related challenges remain the most pervasive near-term business obstacles. These include payroll tax increases for small businesses and the carbon tax increase. Those are two key points.

Would you agree with the Prime Minister that the upcoming carbon tax increase is good for small businesses? Second, do you agree that the increased payroll taxes that were put on small businesses this year were the right move?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Again, we know that climate change is real. It has a real cost on small businesses. When I visited the east coast, I met with a small business that had been negatively impacted by the hurricanes.

Climate change is impacting businesses. At least 60% of them have been impacted by climate change. We will continue to advocate for small businesses while also fighting for the climate.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

When the federal carbon tax was announced, the government promised a $2.5-billion carbon tax rebate for small businesses. The CFIB has been very vocal about why this program hasn't been delivered.

Can you please answer?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

The program is currently being developed as we speak. Relevant small businesses will be able to receive those funds. As soon as the announcement can be made by the minister, he will certainly do that.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Statistics Canada just recently outlined that more businesses are closing than opening. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy reported that business insolvencies increased 41% in 2023 over 2022. This represents one of the largest increases in a generation.

If your government's approach is actually working, what are your officials telling you about these really alarming statistics coming from Statistics Canada?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

What I can tell you is that small businesses are experiencing challenges. Again, we're lowering taxes for small businesses and doing everything we can to help support them. I believe—

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

What taxes are you lowering?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you for the question.

I'll pass it over to my officials, who have the answer to that question.

[Francis Bilodeau]

Tax policy questions are more appropriately sent to the Department of Finance rather than to us. What we can say, though, is that what we saw during the pandemic was actually—

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Specifically, what taxes are you lowering?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 10 seconds.

[Francis Bilodeau]

Tax policy would be a matter for the Department of Finance. It would be in a better position to answer.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you, Minister.