Mr. Speaker, recently I was at the chamber in Victoria, British Columbia talking about a lot of the things we want to hear about from small businesses. One thing I took from that, besides many of the recommendations, was their congratulations to the NDP for having an urban affairs critic. I wanted to make sure that I passed that along to my hon. colleague.
In relation to the question about youth unemployment and small business, part of the proposal we are putting forward is a hiring tax credit for youth that would give small businesses $4,000, especially in those areas that have higher youth unemployment, like my riding of Sudbury, unfortunately. I was shocked to learn when I was recently in Victoria with the member for Victoria that there is a 14% unemployment rate for youth between 18 and 25. Across the country, that is happening in too many cities.
New Democrats have a proposal. If the government wants to take it, we would be more than happy, but I do not think it will do that, because we have not seen it act on anything substantive to help small business in a very long time. This is something that would be a win-win: we will help employ our youth, and we will make sure that the small businesses get the employees they need so urgently.