Mr. Speaker, this bill is one that I really want to speak in favour of. As a business person prior to coming into this Chamber, I am very much aware of the fact that the success of any enterprise can only broaden on the basis of the input of the people who are working for that enterprise.
Very frequently in small enterprises we have the entrepreneur who goes to the wall in terms of his own personal finances, the entrepreneur who puts absolutely everything on the line and probably pours an inordinate number of hours into the work. Then the entrepreneur, his wife, his immediate family or relatives might get one or two more people working. At some point we have employees coming into this growing business.
I will make up a word picture to have a look at what is happening. The entrepreneur has $50,000, for the sake of discussion, that he can bring to the table. Perhaps he collapses some RRSPs or whatever the case may be. He decides he is going to go into the pizza business. He suddenly uncovers the fact that he is going to require at least $150,000 worth of equipment in order to just be in the basic pizza business. If he is going to actually get into a restaurant, the number is going to go way up from that point.
Where is he going to go and where is he going to get the money? Let us step aside for a second and talk about the large enterprise, not perhaps as large as General Motors, but a larger enterprise that might have 100 or 200 people working for it that is in business at the moment. It is not infrequent that at this particular point in time that entrepreneur who perhaps has been in business longer, where there are now millions of dollars actually invested in the firm, will still have his house tied down with the bank as security.
I say I want to speak in favour of this because I am sympathetic toward the motivation. After all is said and done, employees are simply an extension of the business owner, of the entrepreneur, of the corporate culture. When a business is reaching a point of downsizing and things are closing in, those employees can make the difference of whether that enterprise will work or not.
With this kind of protection they might be more inclined-after all we do have to look after ourselves in the business world-to give of themselves and be more sympathetic and actually make this enterprise continue to work. If they do not have any protection it is conceivable that either the larger or the smaller business could miss a pay day or two. We are looking at the pension side of things. It is entirely possible that by continuing to work the employee is actually working to his or her own personal detriment.
If we want to have them completely on side and in the back of their minds they are working to their own detriment, is it not better to have this legislation in place?
I repeat, I want to speak in favour of this bill, but I cannot. The reason why I will not speak in favour of this bill is because the biggest single problem, particularly for small business in Canada today, is working capital or equity or just the wherewithal to get the job done.
At the moment it is not infrequent that businesses are faced with a situation of triple or quadruple security. The first thing the bank is going to say is: "We want your inventory". If that happens to be men's socks or widgets, flanges, gaskets or car parts, it does not make any difference. The bank says: "We want security over your inventory". It will not apply any value. It will not actually give any value. It just wants it.
Second it says: "We want your accounts receivable". That makes sense because in business terms we have converted an asset to a negotiable security, as it were. This is an account payable. If it is 60 days or under it is a current asset. This is something that the bank by assignment can actually make use of. However it is not at all infrequent for the bank to say: "We are only going to give 75, 65, 50 per cent of the value of your 60 day's accounts receivable". This is the reality small business is faced with.
We come back to our little pizza shop owner. The bank will also say; "By the way, we also want to have some way of attaching a mortgage to your equipment". Everything is absolutely tied down.
I suggest to the hon. member who proposed this bill, and there is no question in my mind that it was proposed in good faith, that if he actually speaks to the small business people in his constituency he will find that everything is completely tied down. Can he imagine that the bank or the lending institution of the business person's choice is now going to be told: "Oh, for every employee that I get, I will be guaranteeing up to $9,000 for that employee that you will not be able to touch".
That will be first charge. You will not be able to get to your pizza oven. You will not be able to get to your metal press. You will not be able to get to anything until that $9,000 per employee is satisfied. I suggest to the member that we would be shutting down the ability of small and medium sized businesses to get the cash they require to do business on an ongoing basis.
I want to vote in favour of this. I understand the motivation of the member in proposing it. I want to support the employees because they deserve support. I want to support them because they are the lifeblood, the reason why a business is going to succeed. I want to vote in favour of it but I will not because without the ability to have access to adequate funding, in putting employees first the business will not exist and the employees will not even have a job to go to.
It is with regret that I must say I will be voting against the member's bill.