Mr. Speaker, first I will speak to Motions Nos. 4 and 5 which reference the Fisheries Improvement Loans Act. After review of the act it was seen that reference to the Fisheries Improvement Loans Act was no longer required.
Several small business support programs were restructured in 1987. Fishers became eligible borrowers under the Small Business Loans Act and no new loans were made under the Fisheries Improvement Loans Act. Loans that were still outstanding continued to be administered by fisheries and oceans and borrowers continued to make payments on those loans. Some 85 loans were still outstanding under the program when the bill was being developed. It was decided that a reference to the Fisheries Improvement Loans Act was necessary.
We have subsequently learned that the loans still on the books under the old Fisheries Improvement Loans Act have declined to a negligible amount. Given that most of these loans will soon be paid off the books, reference to the Fisheries Improvement Loans Act in the proposed Canada Small Business Financing Act is no longer required. An amendment to the same effect was made to clause 3 when the bill was at committee. I urge all members of the House to support these amendments as technical clean-up of the bill in its references to the fisheries loan act.
There have been many comments with respect to Motion No. 3 which recommends the reduction of the amount that can be lent to small business from $250,000 to $100,000. Much of the discussion has been referenced to the CFIB, that its recommendation was to reduce the amount to $100,000. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business surveyed its members and found that over 49% supported leaving the limit at $250,000. It notified the standing committee along that line.
I remind everyone here, especially the official opposition, that other stakeholders like the Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association, the Canadian Bankers Association and some independent witnesses in committee also spoke to maintaining the $250,000 limit.
There was much discussion on related borrowers which is what Motion No. 2 addresses. I am surprised the member for Saskatoon—Humboldt put forward this motion after all the debate we had in committee including a discussion of the preliminary regulations. It was agreed among the bankers and the stakeholders, the CFIB, the Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association and the department, that they would look at and come up with the respective regulation that would follow up on the auditor general's comments.
This process has started. It is well under way and the regulations will be issued in due course, after the bill is approved, hopefully by all members of this Chamber, despite some earlier comments.
With respect to Motion No. 2, there are some 1,600 deliverers of what is now known as the SBLA, the future Canada small business finances act.
Because of the timing for regulation approval and training of between 1,500 and 1,600 deliverers, this item will be taking effect, as noted by all the people as discussions were held in the industry committee.
For that reason, I would not now support going back on what we had said in committee and on what we had agreed to with respect to the regulations coming forward to change the items shown in Motion No. 2.
I wanted to speak to those motions. Hopefully members of the official opposition will realize that there has been more fine tuning of this act. The standing committee on industry had great discussions.
I welcome the new NDP member on the committee, specifically the member for Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys. I want to mention his contribution. He took a great interest in this bill and has shown that he wants to be more involved with small business.
I hope all of the opposition parties, when the time comes, will approve this bill for the benefit of small business rather than for political reasons.