Mr. Speaker, my colleague has always expressed the concerns of his constituents and small businesses across the country very well.
Whatever we can do to lift the burden from small business, be it at the border, in sales tax, at the level of corporate reporting, whatever kind of red tape we can lift from the backs of small business is something we can do to improve productivity, improve the bottom line and improve therefore the ability to create and maintain jobs.
The fact that we can plan through Bill C-102 to move trucks through the border more quickly and efficiently means less time for that load between point A and point B and therefore less cost in terms of wasted fuel, manpower, et cetera. This fact alone may only mean pennies on a item in a load, but multiply that millions and
millions of times; take two pennies on something worth a dollar and that is 2 per cent.
If we do that over and over, day in and day out, the accumulation of benefits to the small businesses trucking goods to consumers, to workers, will accumulate indefinitely. The present value of those would virtually be immeasurable.
When coupled with commitments the government has made to deal through regulatory reform with the issue of red tape in all areas, we are as partners to small business. I know some members of the third party say we should be out of business all together. I am not in favour of government's being overly involved in business but it has a role to play in assisting businesses to trade in the world, to take their proper place in the community, but not to be there as a burden. Government can work with businesses to ensure that even though they have to pay taxes those taxes are used wisely and are as low as possible.
If there is one thing the government can do to assist our economic growth and renewal it is to reduce and eliminate where possible the red tape burden that now hangs over too many small businesses.