Mr. Speaker, I have a few brief comments and perhaps a question for the previous speaker from the government side.
I want to clarify a couple of things that have been said back and forth here. First, the Reform Party is very much concerned about the health of small business in Canada. I guess the debate here today is whether or not the changes to the SBLA really help small business. Is it the best place where we can spend some of our efforts to help small business?
Our approach is adding to the amount of money that is available to small business ventures. The SBLA is perhaps one way to go, but we do not feel it is the best way to go.
I refer to a letter I recently received from the Canadian Restaurant and Food Association. I will read from it and ask the member to comment on what would really help small business. The letter states “As noted in previous correspondence, the huge and growing federal payroll tax burden on food service businesses is constraining job growth among the association's 40,000-plus members. Economic theory and empirical evidence both support the strong correlation between significant payroll tax reduction and employment generation, particularly in labour intensive industries like food service”.
There is one industry that is pointing to the common sense solution to help small business. We seem to put huge burdens like high taxes, and the high payroll taxes to which this association refers, in front of small businesses and then help them to get access to capital so they can effectively go out there and hang themselves.
Would the member across the way comment on the relative priority of expanding the SBLA as opposed to giving small business, particularly those in this industry, a break on payroll taxes?