Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Calgary Southeast for the question. First, I would agree that maybe the thinking toward the corporate sector is maturing. Those of us who have often been critical of the corporate sector recognize that there are three legs to the economy. There is the corporate private sector, the public sector and the volunteer sector. We do not think the corporate sector should go away. We just think it should run by a set of rules that meets the needs of people, et cetera, as well.
The hon. member raises an excellent point about small business. That is why the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is one of the best advocates and the most outspoken group on this issue of corporate welfare bums, because small business is not a beneficiary of this kind of patronage program. There is no comparable program to assist the struggling mom and pop store in my community to grow its business, whereas the larger companies, and the member made a very good point, could get a better loan rate at the banks than the Government of Canada could, for heaven's sake, because they are such healthy established companies. When a company has all it needs, it seems to be able to get more on the basis of a phone call, but when a company is struggling and really could create jobs there is no comparable program for it.