Mr. Speaker, we are six years into what economists are calling a recovery but it seems to be a jobless recovery.
Too many Canadians are being left behind. The unemployment rate continues to hover around 10%. There are areas in regions of the country where high chronic unemployment has become the norm for second generation Canadians. This is unacceptable.
Canadian families are working harder than ever, many needing two or three incomes just to make ends meet. Working Canadians are falling further and further behind. Canadians have not experienced a real tax pay raise since the 1980s. A person's disposable income has actually fallen by almost 6 per cent since 1990. Canadians are paying more and more in taxes but getting less and less in return. For the first time ever a generation of Canadians are at risk of leaving their children a lower standard of living than that of their parents.
The tax burden on small business is unacceptable. I know. I have run a small business for 30 years and we are hurting. That is what I want to talk about today. Small business.