Madam Speaker, this is my first time rising for Adjournment Proceedings in the House. I am simply here to ask the government to provide greater clarity on the CEBA program and the timelines involved, and to try to get a better understanding of the challenges the government faced implementing the program.
I am not interested in the statistics surrounding who has benefited or what the program was designed to do. I am fully aware of this, as are many Canadians who have successfully applied to the program. What I and many MPs want to know, along with countless Canadians, is why so many small business owners and farmers were left behind and left feeling forgotten.
I kindly ask the minister who is responding to try to put herself in the position of the small business owners and farmers, like the dozens I heard from across Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound and the thousands across this great country, who have been asking questions and addressing their concerns to us since the inception of this program in April.
I would like to note that the Conservatives alone have brought this issue up with the CEBA over 30 times in the House. We in opposition have constantly pushed the government to make changes and adaptations to the program so that it actually works for the majority of small business owners and farmers.
Small businesses are the backbone of our communities, and every one of us MPs should always be standing up for and advocating on behalf of the hard-working, talented, industrious and brave small business owners and farmers in our ridings. This is why I am here this evening, and one of the fundamental factors as to why I got involved in politics.
Initially, senseless rules excluded many small business owners from the CEBA. The primary problem under the initial criteria was that small business owners must have had a pre-existing business account to qualify. Sole proprietors typically use a chequing account rather than a business account, and thus they did not qualify. My colleagues and I pushed for two simple corrections to the loan criteria: First, remove the requirement to have a business account to qualify for the CEBA, and second, expand the eligibility criteria for the CEBA to include revenue decline so that more small businesses qualified for the $40,000 loan.
However, it took a long time. It was not until August 31 that the government announced it was working closely with financial institutions to make the CEBA program available to those who qualify with qualifying payroll or non-deferrable expenses but, so far, had been unable to apply due to not operating from a business bank account. The Liberals committed then to making this happen. However, I note that it was just an announcement that they were going to look into it.
The problem with that unclear announcement, and many of the unclear announcements with no clear implementation date, was that it added to the confusion of those business owners and farmers struggling in my riding and in many ridings across the country. Many of these small business owners heard the news in August and took it to mean that they could then apply, so they did. Some applied once and some eight or nine times, without getting any explanation for why they were rejected. They would call the 1-800 number. They would wait on hold for six or eight hours. They would sometimes get a call back one day, two days or three days later.
These are hard-working individuals who had been waiting for the promised changes for nearly two months. They had been waiting on the government to take action on its commitments and these delays had negative impacts on their businesses, families and mental health as they wondered how they were going to get by.
It was not until this past Monday that the government announced that the CEBA would finally be available to businesses that had been operating out of a non-business banking account. However, that really is not true, and it could even be said that the government has been misleading Canadians. The Liberals' news release on Monday is titled, “Canada Emergency Business Account now open to businesses using personal banking accounts”. However, those using personal chequing accounts are still not eligible for CEBA. Those interested in making use of the CEBA program must open a business account with their financial institution.
To be clear, the government is claiming that the Canada emergency business account is now open to businesses using personal banking accounts. This means that you are eligible, but applicants have to create a new business account in order to be able to apply. They are not eligible from their personal account.
The government may have legitimate reasons for this decision. However, these small business owners, farmers and all Canadians deserve to know why. Why did it take the government so long to implement these changes?