That's right. Making bread is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with making bread. Bread is not a dirty word.
We ask ourselves if small businesses want the Small Business Loans Act.
I asked some of my friends who I went to high school with about this. I will tell the story of Mike Nyhus, a fellow who I went to high school with. He started a very successful construction company. Mike was never a Reformer when we attended high school together, but he has changed because he is now out in the workforce making money and paying other people's salaries.
I asked Mike how we could change things to make them better for him so he could employ more people. He told me that his biggest problem was the red tape and the administrative nightmare he has as a small business person. He said that his biggest problems were looking after the GST and all the paperwork, as well as the payroll taxes, including the Canada pension plan and employment insurance.
The last time I heard word of him, Mike said that he could hire five people, but he did not do that. His business could afford to hire five more people, but he said that the administrative nightmare was preventing him from hiring them for his business in my riding of Calgary West.
When I look at that I say shame on the government. Its whole idea behind this is that it can toss more money at a problem and make it go away. That is exactly what it wants to do with Bill C-21. The government hopes that by increasing the taxpayer liability from $14 billion to $15 billion it will magically create more jobs and help taxpayers and small businesses.
If we look to the businesses that this loans program is aimed at, 40% of the businesses that receive loan guarantees under the Small Business Loans Act actually did not need to have the loan guarantees.