Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to Bill C-53, an act to increase the availability of financing for small businesses which would not otherwise have access to financing.
You are aware, Mr. Speaker, of what small business is about if I gauge it right. You have been involved in small business and know what is needed to run a small business: financing and capital. I started thinking in layman's terms as far as a farmer is concerned. If you ain't going to make it, why borrow more money and do it? That seems to be the intent of the bill.
There is a saying on the farm that if government helps once we will survive. If it helps twice we will get very sick and if it helps another time we will die. That is possibly what is happening here. If a businessman does not deserve or cannot be provided with financing by somebody, maybe death will be there in the long run anyway.
I do not want to take anything away from entrepreneurs. I give the example of a gentleman that I have known for a number of years. He had some financial problems in his business venture and had to shut it down. He got another idea which he felt was a deserving idea. He required some financing from financial institutions but was turned down time and time again.
I did not realize that this had been going on, but when I saw him he had started a business and was doing fairly well. I asked him where he finally found an institution that would give him financing. He said he never found one but had asked a couple of friends whether they would be part of what he was doing. He found some private money and got started. He was very successful.
I asked him what he had to do to persuade somebody that he was stable enough or entrepreneurial enough to start a business. He said he had to pay 18% interest for the money. That was what he had to do.
He was honest, worked hard and made it. If the money had come easily and he thought if he did not make it the government would back him up, I wonder if he would have put in the same effort and asked other people to advise him or to help him. This is what I am talking about when I say that perhaps government helps too much. It helps us to die, not to survive.
I thought a very interesting comment was made in the House the other day when we were debating the farm crisis on a motion the Reform put forward. A question was asked of the agriculture minister who said that no farmer should be able to farm without getting a job on the outside. That is the type of help the government wants to give to the farming industry. Does it realize it is a small business compared to large manufacturing? That was a rather discouraging answer.
We just heard the hon. member for Selkirk—Interlake talk about some of the fees assessed against farmers. I will point out a very simple illustration on my farm in the last month or so. We grow some very desirable durum which the U.S. likes in its milling industry as far as pasta manufacturing is concerned. As it happened we thrashed the durum and took it into the elevator. It was graded a number 3CW durum which is a fairly good grade for the pasta industry. When we started hauling the durum to the elevator a few pieces of ergot were found in it, which is not desirable at all. It was downgraded it to No. 5 durum. This was a setback to my boys on the farm. It reduced the price of the product and probably would result in their bottom line being even more in the red. They took a sample into the U.S. to be analysed and to see what the Americans would pay for very high quality durum with a bit of ergot in it.
The Americans took a look at it and said they did not mind, that they would take the durum. It was a good idea. We could go to the wheat board and get a buyback. The wheat board would accommodate us and help us get a better price for the durum. The Americans offered us $4.55 for the durum within the same distance of our farm as the Canadian elevator. The initial price is $1.57 for No. 5 durum.
This meant we could triple our income if we could get a licence to export it to the U.S. When we asked the wheat board for that export licence, it wanted to charge us $5.12 for durum which they said was rotten and no good.
This is the way government helps industry and small business. It gets them on their feet then taxes them to death. If our small business had the same type of tax relief as other industries in other countries they would be very viable.
American farmers get a $6 billion tax write-off just because of depressed prices. That would help every farmer in Canada. Not only would it help farmers, but they would have money to spend in rural communities where other small business people would benefit. As well, more taxes would be earned.
This is what we have come to. The government gives the perception that it is doing something that is good for the country when actually it is destroying it with overtaxation, with trying to keep viable industries that probably should never be operating.
I want to be very fair. I would like all businessmen or constituents with the idea of starting their own business to have that opportunity. The best teacher they could have in life is running their own business and being their own boss. It gives them the idea of how many sleepless nights it sometimes takes to earn a feeble living that is maybe less than they would get from the payment of wages in another profession.
A level playing field, an opportunity to work within a system that treats everybody fairly and equally, is a must in democracy. That is why I urge the government to look at tax reduction and to look at creating level playing fields rather than giving handouts which we have seen do not work.