I can say it with a straight face. It is the same with bank mergers. I hear today that the Reform Party is now supporting the bank mergers. Can it honestly believe that a further concentration of power for banks will be beneficial to small business?
The Reform Party is now supporting the bank mergers.
The reason we had to get into the Small Business Loans Act in this country was because the banks were not taking on the challenge of helping young people with ideas to create new businesses. That is the purpose of the Small Business Loans Act.
It is a risk loan. There is no doubt about it. But look at the loan loss in the Small Business Loans Act file for the Government of Canada. In relation to the number of jobs created and the benefits, it is minimal. Yet today we hear Reform members saying that they will stand in their communities and say to all the small businessmen and women that they do not support the Small Business Loans Act. I cannot believe it, but that is the position that party has taken.
When the Reform Party came to the House I will never forget the opening remarks of the leader. He said “We are going to bring a new sense of decorum to the House of Commons. If we see legislation that we feel is constructive, we are not going to oppose for the sake of opposing. We will get up, we will support it and we will speak about that legislation in a positive way”.
This is a piece of no-brainer legislation. It is legislation that is very much motherhood, and the Reform Party, for the sake of political expediency, is slowing down the process of putting Bill C-53 through the House of Commons. This bill should have been through the House of Commons, all three readings, a month ago, but instead we have the Reform Party slowing it down. The Reform Party is putting a drag on small business in this country.
The Liberal Party will continue to be the warriors for small business in this country.