Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise to discuss Bill C-53.
Up to this point in time nobody has mentioned in the House what makes small businesses go or what makes small businesses operate. Coming from the western constituency of Souris—Moose Mountain we have but two major corporations. Both are government owned. They are coal generated power plants. Outside one other business every business in my constituency is under definition a small business.
In the winter of 1966-67 my question to the small businesses in my community was to ask what they needed most. At that time the answer was to get the high cost of government doing government business for them off their backs. It was almost universal.
Now the story has changed and it is a sad case on the western prairies. It is very sad in my community for small businesses. It is probably worse to be in a small business in the grain industry now than it has been since World War II.
When I made phone calls the comments I heard were that the bill did not interest them in the least. They wanted customers who had some money to spend. We have not addressed that question in the debate. It is a domino effect. If customers have no money in their pockets, the businesses go down regardless of the loans to them. We have not addressed the plight of primary industries for a long time.
I made two phone calls to small hardware stores in my community that would certainly qualify for a loan. Basically they depend entirely on two sources: the oil patch and the agricultural community.
Both hardware stores, same response. One more year of this and we close the door.
In most in my towns and villages there are three businesses closing for every one that is staying open. We have not addressed the problem of providing and looking after our primary industries. Grain production in Saskatchewan is still the number one industry. I will give members what I dug up in the last two days. Here are four local industries.
One, setting up steel storage beams. They are out of business. They had a loan. Two, an independent soil testing device to provide information to the farmers. Closed. Out of business. Three, fertilization. It no longer pays to fertilize with the price of grain. Four is very interesting. A local contractor not too far from where I live employing four people is out of business. His job was to put new roofs, barns and so on. But there is no money. Businesses are going down because we have neglected the primary industries.
I hope the House and all Canadians will listen to this so they understand. Picture in your minds nine steel bins on the prairies full of grain. The first three bins will go to pay the freight. The next two bins will go to pay the taxes. The next two bins will pay the fuel costs. The last two bins pay the seed, spray and maybe some fertilizer. NISA, the RRSP for farmers, was a good program. I commend the government and the provinces for that. It now is gone. They used it all in the last two years. They have exhausted their total line of credit at the banks and the credit unions.
Here is the situation. I read something I got yesterday morning from my local elevator. Canadians should realize why small local businesses are out of the picture. As of yesterday, with freight deducted, the farmer takes home $2.12 with number one red spring wheat. That is the worst price that the farmers have received. Nothing since World War II could come anywhere near that.
The agricultural economists tell us that if we do not get $4.00 a bushel we are not breaking even. 3CW durum is $2.02. No wonder men stores and the ladies shops and all the small businesses are closing. Oats are 77 cents a bushel. Number one feed barley is 74 cents a bushel.
I stopped a lady who had gone in to buy some shoes, some jeans, shirts and so on for a family of three to get them started back to school. The total bill was around $324. Let me tell members the plight of western Canadian small business. That small bit that she bought for her children would take 437 bushels of barley.
Instead of joking about this situation, hon. members should be ashamed of themselves. This is not a joke. I live among these people. I know what is happening out there. All across Canada, if the primary industries are not nurtured or protected, we will have a domino effect.
It would take 8,100 bushels of barley or 7,800 bushels of wheat to pay a $6,000 tax bill.
What happens to the small business is simply that the majority of taxes in Saskatchewan go to education. These taxes are not going to come in. Therefore what happens? There are fewer roads built, fewer teachers hired and it goes on and on.
The local governments cannot keep up because of commodity pricing and they are not the least bit interested in this bill until this government takes an honest look at what part it can do in looking at a very serious situation.
Two of the largest farm implement dealerships locked their doors in the last two months. They were for sale. No buyers.
In a survey I did, at 26 farm auction sales only 2 of those farms were going to be turned over to members of the same family. The majority of these people want nothing to do with the dreadful situation that exists.
The bill looks good. The bill sounds good but it is of absolutely no value whatsoever to the people I represent until the government does something about the primary industries.
The people in my constituency could not care less about the wrangling in this House today. That does not put money in their pockets. It does not give them any guarantee for the future. They hate to face the coming winter.
I do not deny that the government wants to support small business but I want members to be aware that if they are really going to support small business, they have to look after the primary industries of this country.
In that respect, the people in western Canada, the people I have met in my constituency totally will say you have disregarded the primary interest of our province. Members have to put more money into the hands of the customer.
There are approximately 68 private insurance brokers in my constituency. One motion of this government that will allow the banks and the credit unions to have it all in-store shopping could knock out 76 private businesses in two weeks.
They have heard the same message I have but I have made it abundantly clear to them that I am here to protect their business on the main street of every town. I hope the government heeds that lesson very well.
Another thing is the overtaxation not only to the consumer but as it deals with the private small business.
The domino effect of grants from this government and from the provincial government has made it virtually impossible for the small operator to meet those taxation demands. Their taxes have gone up 8 times, 800% in less than 20 years, and little wonder. If any of the members opposite want to dispute this claim they can do their own research. Is it not true that they have had as many phone calls as I have had with regard to the EI?
Both the people who called me this morning basically said “Do you want to hurt government businesses? We paid $1.40 for every one of our employees spending $1. It belongs to us and we won't be able to hire more people unless that premium is dropped”. This was from a person hiring some 16 people.
If government really wants to help small businesses, go ahead but it had better deal with the primary things first. It has taxed businesses to death. It has taxed the Canadian public to death. It has excessively taxed people on their CPP premiums, which is another tax grab. The government has a disgraceful record in the EI.
While all this is on one side of the government's books, it tries to stand in the House and tell us what a wonderful thing this is going to be for small business.
I wanted to move a motion before this bill went any further because I wanted to make it abundantly clear to all Canadians that small businesses with a staff of two and three people are going to close their doors in my province in the next two years because of this government's lack of concern as to what it could do to support that primary industry.
The second largest bill is the tax on the fuel that a farmer uses to run his farm. I was in a farm yard not too long ago when the tanks were filled and the bill was $1,800. A good portion of that is taxation.
I think this bill should be delayed. I look at these prices such as $2.12 a bushel for wheat. I do not think there is a farm, even if it is a 20 section farm, that can survive on that. However, because this government seems to have no interest in that small amount, I want to read to this House—