Mr. Speaker, I have to begin my remarks to my friend from Edmonton—Strathcona by going back to 10 years ago when I came to this House. One of the first things I noticed at that time when we were in opposition is that we only had one member of parliament in western Canada. A little team in our office organized a program called the best of the west. We had some bright, articulate, liberal minded university students come to Ottawa, get used to working on the Hill and develop ideas on public policy so that one day they could come back as elected officials and take some of those thoughts and ideas and represent the regions.
The member for Edmonton—Strathcona was one of those young university students who was on my staff for that best of the west program. I am happy to see him in the House, but I am shocked to see that he did not learn some of the Liberal values, vision and principles that we worked on during that period of time.
I want to be very specific about an experience we had 10 years ago. At that time we were in opposition. The member was around when the then Conservative government brought amendments to the Small Business Loans Act before the House. It was at a time when the banks were doing very little for small business men and women. The Conservative government amended the bill to try to urge and push the banks to provide more access to capital. At that time this was not a Conservative idea but it had the insight and the understanding that it was listening to small businesses when they were saying they were getting turned down on a regular basis. The Small Business Loans Act with the government guarantee was something that would make sure the small business realm would stay healthy.
I stood in this House in opposition and supported the government's amending that bill. We got it through three readings in one day. In opposition we are not there just for the sake of opposing. If the government comes up with a good piece of legislation, which the member knows from experience, then we support the government. To this day we still do not have the banks doing enough for small business.
I challenge the member to stand up in the House and say that he thinks the banks and financial institutions are doing a great job in providing all kinds of capital for small and medium size business men and women. I challenge him to stand up and say that in his own riding. What will happen if he says that? He will be blown out of here so fast that he will not know what hit him. His riding is no different from my riding. Even with the pressure this government has put on banks in the last few years, with the pressure from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance and every member of this side of the House, it is still tough to get banks to shift from words to deeds and actions toward loaning capital to small business men and women.
This is what this government has done, what this Minister of Industry has done repeatedly since he has been in charge of this portfolio. This is my third time since we have been in government that we have amended this bill. Each time we fine tuned it. We have been responsible with the fiscal framework. To stand in the House and suggest that the Small Business Loans Act is really nothing more than government intervention and that it is counterproductive to small business defies logic. It defies experience. His words are so distant from reality. It boggles my mind. I am stunned that somebody who used to be on my staff would come up with such stuff.
I have to say to my dear friend that I do not want him to loose some of those great Liberal principles that he once had. He can loose them in certain sectors. I appeal to him not to walk away from small business men and women. It does not matter whether you are a member of the separatist party or a member of the Conservative Party, whatever party you are with, the economy of this country is run by the small business men and women. They are creating 80% of the jobs. If we have to guarantee a float of about $10 billion and if in a bad year $1 billion goes bad but it meant that there were tens of thousands of entrepreneurs out there creating jobs and creating vitality, so be it.
There is a notion of letting banks do it on their own. Is there anybody in the Chamber who believes we should stand back and trust the banks to look after the small business men and women in the country and that they would do a great job? I defy anybody to stand up and say this would happen. I will never desert my core values when it comes to small business men and women. I will never waiver or walk away.
That is part of the reason why I came to Ottawa early today, to support the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry. The bill should pass all three readings the same day with all party support, just the way we handled it when we were in opposition. No member of parliament in the House cannot ever be seen doing anything other than putting our shoulder to the wheel for small business.