Mr. Speaker, we are debating Bill C-53, an act to increase the availability of financing for the establishment, expansion, modernization and improvement of small businesses.
In the mind of the minister, it is just another version of the previous legislation. Several members from various parties, mainly opposition parties, have proposed amendments. Among these members, my colleague from Mercier proposed several amendments, one of which I find particularly interesting. I am talking about Motion No. 1, which was moved today, November 17, and which reads as follows:
“2.1 The purpose of this Act is to increase the availability of financing of small businesses, which would not otherwise have access to financing”.
Right now, the banks are not really interested in providing financing or lending money to small businesses that are not absolutely viable. In other words, it is a lot easier for a financial institution to lend money to Bombardier, for example, or to General Electric or to another big company like Loblaws, than to do so to a small business with assets of three quarters of a million or a million dollars. This small business often creates proportionally 10 to 20 times more jobs than these large multinationals that think more about money than about creating jobs.
In this context, I took part, with my colleague from Mercier, in a large poll in my riding. I polled more than 1,300 small businesses about the financing offered to them. I was amazed at the response rate I got and I realized that financing is essential and that it is also a concern for the vast majority of our small businesses. For example, when there is the slightest doubt, the interest rate on a loan goes up 1 to 3%.
Obviously, if a business must pay maximum interest, its survival becomes even more problematic. But there is worse. Someone phoned me last week, when the House was not sitting, and invited me to meet him and visit his small business. That person showed me a letter from a banking institution asking for additional guarantees or the institution would demand full payment of its loan within 48 hours.
The bank is putting a gun to the head of this business owner, who employs 10 people in a small rural community. This is a major cause for concern. He turned to another lender who agreed to provide financing, but at a much higher rate than was to be expected at this time.
Our small and medium size businesses have the right to expect provisions that will increase access to financing for them, both in Quebec and in the rest of Canada. They are also entitled to expect a program that makes financing available to small and medium size businesses that would otherwise have a much harder time getting financing elsewhere. Such provisions would also provide entrepreneurs with the means to fund their working capital—and that is important too—to ensure the growth and development of their small and medium size businesses. These comments were made when I polled 1,300 of these businesses in my riding of Frontenac—Mégantic.
Bill C-53, as introduced by the minister, does nothing to increase the availability of financing for small and medium size businesses. It simply changes how the government's total commitment is calculated, but there is no increase. The underlying principle that guided this review of the SBLA does nothing to meet the needs of small and medium size businesses. The government is much more concerned about figures. Bill C-53 does not help provide financing to businesses that would not otherwise have access to such financing elsewhere.
Let us not forget that small and medium size businesses currently create many more jobs than large businesses employing 500 or 1,000 people. There are fewer and fewer of these large companies, with the result that, overall, small and medium size businesses generate many more jobs.
For example, in 1994, businesses with less than 100 employees accounted for 41.2% of all jobs in Quebec. I imagine the situation is essentially the same in the rest of Canada. In Ontario, that percentage is a little lower, at 34.7%.
Over the past 20 years or so, in Quebec and many other countries, employment in small business has increased significantly, rising from 36% in 1978 to 45% in 1993. Everyone agrees, and the figures are there to prove it beyond any doubt, small business is number one in creating jobs.
Small business plays the most significant role in job creation, especially in agriculture, fisheries and forestry. We must recognize also that it adds value to regional production. The expectation is that the jobs will remain in the region.
Take hog houses for instance. What good is it to have hog houses in a given region if, once hogs have reached their ideal weight for human consumption, they are shipped by truck or train over hundreds of kilometres to facilities where they will be slaughtered, processed and shipped overseas or sold for domestic consumption in Canada?
People in the rural region where these hogs were raised, who had to live with the smell of the manure spread on the land, are not happy with just a few jobs. If the hogs could be slaughtered locally and if the carcasses could be processed locally, hundreds of direct jobs on the farm and in the hog industry could be created.
The same thing goes for the maple syrup industry, where we could do some processing locally. Instead of selling the syrup in 45-gallon barrels, we could sell maple candies in beautiful gift-wrapped boxes, and things like that.
So, throughout the country, small businesses have been the main source of job creation locally. For more small businesses to be established, they need to be able to obtain the necessary support and financing.
This morning, before I came to the House, I got a call from Lac-Mégantic, where preparations are underway to set up Place aux jeunes. As you know, we raise and educate our children. They often choose to get some training or go to university in some of Quebec's larger cities and many of them never come back to the Lac-Mégantic area.
So, Nathalie Labrecque is working with the CFDC and the Comité jeunesse de la région de Lac-Mégantic, in the Granite regional county municipality, to set up a group called Place aux jeunes. With appropriate financing, we could provide our young people with the support they need to start up their own business.