Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak to Bill C-53 and to support the amendments brought forward by the member for Mercier. These amendments are aimed at making the act more responsive to the real needs of small and medium size businesses.
Even though the Bloc Quebecois is extremely disappointed with this so-called review of the Small Business Loans Act, we do not for one minute think that the SBLA should disappear. On the contrary. However, we want the government to be more attentive to the needs of small and medium size businesses in reviewing the act.
The truth is that small businesses are extremely important. Statistics reveal that large businesses no longer are and will no longer be the main creators of jobs. Small businesses will give opportunities to those who want to become their own boss and to succeed in a field in which they chose to specialize to create their own job and to create other jobs for people who may join their small business.
With my colleague from Mercier and several members of the Bloc Quebecois, I took part in a poll of small and medium size businesses in my riding because we know how important this act can be for them. It is a matter of life and death. We asked the interviewees very specific questions and the response rate shows beyond any doubt that the amendment put forward by the hon. member for Mercier indicates exactly where the small businesses stand right now and what they need in order to survive and if possible expand, and hence create jobs.
In answer to the first question, 90% of the small businesses responding stated that they find it very hard to get financing at a reasonable cost. Several of them added, and I quote:
More and more often, we have to put up not only our own assets but those of our spouse. Our own recognizance is not enough. Banks often charge small businesses higher fees. Since the banks do not make a lot of profit on personal loans, they hike up the service fees that are not legislated. To increase the term of a loan from five to eight years does not make any sense.
Not enough financing is in some ways worse than no financing at all, because the business cannot develop and expand as it could or as it should.
The second question was used to find out if the Small Business Loans Act was well known. And 55% of the respondents indicated that they did not know the legislation very well and 45% knew about it, but the vast majority, more than 90% of the respondents, thought the legislation could be enhanced. I would like to quote some of the comments made most frequently: get rid of capital tax; there are so many criteria to have access to financing and to qualify that, in the end, we would not need it.
On the fourth question, 95% of respondents felt that loans should be given for working capital and not only for equipment and assets and real property. The pilot projects will provide a good opportunity to establish the options in this area.
The last question for heads of SMBs read “From your experience and according to your staff, would it be easier to develop SMBs if they had ready access at reasonable cost to management advice?” The answer was 98% affirmative. Also “In your experience, would there be fewer bankruptcies?” Ninety-five per cent said yes.
For these very eloquent reasons supported by a very enlightening poll in addition to arguments my colleagues have made, we tabled the amendments to improve Bill C-53 for SMBs, that is, to make it serve them, employment and productivity better.
We want the good news for these businesses to be not just the extension of the small business loans program, but its extension and its improvement. The aim of our amendments is to respond to the shortcomings we and the SMB managers have noted.