I am not sure but the member used to be a Conservative, Social Credit and now Reform. The member would know from his vast experience in British Columbia that a program such as employment insurance is extremely important to all Canadians. It is important to the workers but it is also important to the employers. How could a small business survive if it did not have the insurance policy like employment insurance? How could its employees survive if it did not have that insurance policy?
I notice puzzled looks opposite. It has astounded to me to no end that from day one the Reform Party has been unable to support this bill. What does it have against small businesses? It is a puzzle. The words do not match the actions in this case. I do not want to get into a rant. I promised myself that I am going to start leaving Reformers alone as much as I can. It is difficult but I am going to suck it up, try to be a good boy and not pick on them. We know what happens. Every time I talk in this place and give Reformers a hard time there is some guy in British Columbia who phones my office and rants and raves that I am such a meanspirited person. I really am not. I have this inability to put up with nonsense that comes from across.
I will get back to Bill C-53. I want to talk about the arguments the members opposite make all the time about our being a big nasty government and we invoke something that the Canadian people know as closure. Let me give those members the history of this bill and how we arrived here. Pay attention and take some notes Get your crayons out.
In November 1997 the Minister of Industry introduced Bill C-21 to extend the lending period of the Small Business Loans Act to one year until March 31 to allow sufficient time to conduct a comprehensive review. It would take into account three considerations paramount for its continuation.
Because we were here when that happened, I was very confident that this did not spell the end of the Small Business Loans Act but more likely the modernization of it, the cleaning up of it. Any program that has been in place as long as this one, which I believe is 37 years, should be looked at and reviewed not only by the auditor, which has happened, but also by this parliament.
The points I made earlier is that it must be relevant to the needs of small business, financially self-sustaining and it must have an adequate accountability framework. Those are the three sorts of legs of the stool that I pointed out earlier that are very important.
In December 1997, to follow the bouncing ball, the auditor general issued his report on the first audit of the SBLA in a decade. That is a long time. Frankly, I hope the auditor general does not wait 10 years to do it again. I think it is extremely important for Canadians to have confidence that it is working, that it makes sense, that it is accountable, that the cost recovery is there and that it is a successful program to help small business.
In that report he expressed concerns about the lack of a clear definition about expected results, areas for improvement in the management and delivery of the program and the adequate provision of information to parliament. These are again points that I have referred to in my dissertation this morning.
In February 1998 the Standing Committee on Public Accounts had the auditor general and Industry Canada appear before it. I was there and it was very enlightening and a good opportunity to have the auditor general hold us accountable, which needs to happen more often.
In March 1998 the program was extended, again through Bill C-21, by one year which allowed us to have the time to arrive at this stage, the third and final reading of the bill.
In May 1998 the Standing Committee on Public Accounts issued a report with 10 recommendations to focus on the issues the auditor general had expressed concern about.
I want to share with the House the consultation process. When closure comes in after a full year of debate, of committee work, of auditing by the auditor general, of debates in here, of introduction and first reading, second reading, referral to committee and back here for debate on third reading, if the government did not put an end to this we would simply be here forever in a gridlock and we would have no opportunity to put in place a bill that will help Canadians. No government, regardless of its political stripes, could tolerate that.
Who did we talk to? The Alberta treasury branch. How can the members of the Reform oppose this bill when I am absolutely confident that the members of the Alberta treasury branch had a lot to say about the formulation of this bill. We would have listened to them and taken into account their concerns and their advice.
The impact on small business in western Canada is painfully obvious to everybody except those members in the Reform Party who represent western Canada or parts of it.
We listened to the Alliance of Manufacturers and Exporters of Canada. This is extremely important because small business would rely on an alliance of manufacturers and exporters. They need the assistance of the provincial governments. They need programs like this to provide capital for them so they are able to export into the world marketplace.
There is no question that the Bank of Montreal is taking a lot of hits these days. Mr. Barrett and company are under a lot of pressure but he announced that they were prepared—the jury is still out obviously—to establish a new bank that would be dedicated to small business lending and funded with some $40 billion in capital that would be made available. That is an initiative we should pursue. It is not a done deal.
There is the decision on whether or not the mergers are allowed to go ahead. I come from a riding that has a very substantial number of bank employees who are afraid for their jobs if the mergers go ahead and are afraid for their jobs if the mergers do not go ahead. It is a double-edged sword and we have look at it calmly and rationally.
We talked to the bank. We talked to Boreal Assurances Incorporated. We talked to Canada Trust on the role of trust companies as a lender in this particular situation. We talked with the Canadian Advanced Technology Association on the potential impact and the possibility for small business to work in advanced technology, in IT and all of that which is extremely important. We talked with the Canadian Bankers Association.
There are the chambers of commerce and the boards of trade. The Mississauga Board of Trade represents thousands of small businesses. In fact it is predominantly small businesses that make up chambers of commerce and boards of trade. Sometimes they take a hit because they are accused of being too right wing. That is a somewhat myopic viewpoint. The board of trade in my community takes on social issues. It looks at issues of concern to the municipality, to the province and to the federal government. It has an extensive review process in place. It is mostly small business people who volunteer their time to serve on boards of trade and chambers of commerce.
Young executive boards of trade exist in many communities. Young people have an opportunity to get involved in aspects of business and can volunteer to assist business, particularly small business.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is a group which I worked very closely with when I was at Queen's Park. At times it puts out reports that would make one wonder if they were totally representative of the viewpoint of all members of that association. In fairness, I say to Catherine Swift and others involved in that organization, they serve a tremendous purpose. They serve a purpose of having a link to government, an opportunity to reach out and survey the federation's members and find out how important something like Bill C-53 is in terms of a small business loan to that community. Is it something that is just government fluff or is it something that the business community is taking advantage of? I would suggest businesses are doing that.
The Canadian Finance and Leasing Association is a new twist. Before this bill businesses could not access with the protection and the backing of the Canadian government finance capital from leasing companies. It is a big part of business. It can at times be a little expensive. I would caution all small businesses to take a serious and close look at the rates they pay for leasing. There are real advantages.
One of them is in terms of leasing computers. In two or three years the hardware may be obsolete and certainly in two or three months the software will be obsolete. A computer can be leased for two years and then returned and refurbished. There is a very active program in Canada to sell those refurbished computers and hardware abroad in markets that can use them. Then the small business can renew the lease and get up to date state of the art hardware. This is one of the few ways small businesses can ensure they are compatible with the marketplace in terms of competing with larger businesses.
Municipalities do that. The city of Brampton, for which I worked for some time as a consultant, has adopted a program through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. It leases all of the computers. There are hundreds of them in a corporation the size of the city of Brampton. The city of Mississauga has a similar type of leasing arrangement. When the hardware is obsolete, it is turned back in. It gets brand new up to date state of the art equipment from the leasing company.
If for no other reason, this is a reason to support this bill, I say to members opposite. This is a reason to share with the small business community. This is a new window, a new frontier, a new opportunity where the government will give a guarantee that will back the leasing arrangement.
On the CIBC, once again we have talked to the banks and the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, which is extremely important. The cost of leasehold improvements for a restaurant can be very large. We could be talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. This bill will provide up to a quarter of a million dollars for such a project.
It is important to note that we are not talking about financing restaurants all over the country. We are talking about leasehold improvements that will add value. That is why we as a government wanted to hear from the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. We do not want to be the sole source of financing of leasehold improvements which include the cost of freezers, cookers, et cetera, but we want to be there to help.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation should be near and dear to the hearts of Reformers so I will let them talk about those individuals.
I mentioned the great work done by the member for Parkdale—High Park in relation to her report on credit unions. Their role has expanded tremendously. Canadians should go to their credit unions. They are not customers. They are owners. They become shareholders and partners in credit unions. We should be using credit unions more.
GE Capital is one of the big leasing companies involved. The list goes on and on of the many financial institutions we have talked to.
This bill is a classic. It shows the government has consulted. We extended the old bill to ensure the program would be safe and that it would carry on. We have not modified the end result. There is still a quarter of a million dollars available in terms of a loan. We will still guarantee 85% repayment on behalf of the borrower to the lender. The bill gives confidence to the lending institutions, the credit unions and leasing companies, all the organizations in the financial sector, that they will be able to support small business.
Make no mistake. This bill is not there to help lending institutions. This bill is there to help small businesses. It is there to help ensure their future. It is there to help ensure they will be able to compete in the incredibly competitive global economy. They will be able to manufacture and export their goods, create jobs and continue to make this economy one of the most vibrant in the entire world.