Mr. Speaker, I am noting that it is 12:25 a.m. It is late, but it is never too late to shine the spotlight on issues that are affecting small business in a negative way.
I am referring to a question I asked in the House regarding the increases in import tariffs that would leave Canadians paying hundreds of millions of dollars more for over 1,200 items. It would be a hidden tax on goods that will drive the customers of Canadian businesses to shop in the United States. It will be bad for consumers and bad for Canadian businesses.
The Conservatives talk a lot about their federal budget. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising their economic plan. I would love to see them advertise some of these taxes that are hidden in the budget implementation bill, hidden taxes that would affect small businesses and the people who work in them.
Small business is the lifeblood of our communities, whether it is the small businesses I met with at the Kitsilano Chamber of Commerce, for example, at their AGM recently, who were networking to help each other be successful; the Young Professionals of Nanaimo, who work in the public interest to raise funds for local projects and support each other in their emerging businesses; or the clean tech businesses I met at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada's recent conference, who are investing in innovation so that Canada can have a clean technology export industry that thrives.
These businesses create half of all new jobs in Canada. They account for 40% of our GDP, employ about two-thirds of the workforce and account for 43% of the value of exports. They are very important community members. Their success is critical to Canada. However, they are being hit with increased taxes that are hidden in the budget.
Beyond these tariff increases, there is also a $2.3-billion increase in dividend taxes, to be paid over the next five years by small businesses. That is $2.3 billion they could be retaining to help with the investments they need to make. That comes on top of yet another year of hikes to the EI payroll taxes that collectively cost businesses $9 billion.
These budget items risk undermining our entrepreneurs. As well, it makes it more expensive to own and run these businesses. As a former small business owner myself, I know just how challenging it is to succeed and thrive, be innovative and grow a small business. I am not sure why the government wants to tie their hands behind their backs by increasing taxes.
It might be that this very kind of approach helps to explain the government's failure on the economy and the way they are failing Canadian families economically. It just does not seem to understand the realities of everyday Canadians and small businesses.
I have many statistics from organizations such as TD Economics, Trading Economics and so forth to confirm the assertion that unemployment is high under the current government. There are still 310,000 more people out of work today than there were in 2006. That is just one of many metrics on which the government has failed.