Madam Speaker, I plan to split my time with the member for Northumberland—Peterborough South.
I am very pleased to rise to speak in strong support of the motion put forward by my friend, the shadow minister for finance and the hon. member for Carleton. I am very proud to be seconding the motion, a motion that could not be more timely as we approach the Christmas season and as workers and businesses right across Canada are dealing with unprecedented challenges 10 months into COVID.
That is what this motion is about. It is about calling on the government to provide certainty to businesses and workers by providing the details of the highly affected sectors credit availability program. It is nice to make an announcement, but the devil is in the details. That is why the motion calls on the government to provide those details by December 16.
The motion further calls on the government to fix the failed LEEFF program for large employers. This is a program that was announced on May 11. It was not until recently that a mere two applications were approved. There have been at least 17 applications, and many large employers simply are not applying because they find the eligibility criteria to be cumbersome.
There is no question that the challenges faced by small businesses and all businesses across Canada are significant. To that end, to underscore the level of concern within the business community, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business undertook a sizable survey of small business owners, wherein 46% were worried that their business could not survive. In that light, the motion calls on the government to provide assurance to struggling businesses by not increasing taxes and by removing job creation barriers, including taxes and regulations, so that as we transform and move past COVID into a COVID recovery, we can unleash the great Canadian workforce and transform, as the member for Carleton stated, from a credit card economy to a paycheque economy.
According to the CFIB, 51% of businesses are concerned about cash flow, 46% are concerned about debt, and approximately 15% are contemplating filing for bankruptcy or entering receivership as we speak. According to the CFIB, some 220,000 small and medium-sized enterprises may not make it through COVID. That represents 19% of SMEs. The CFIB's best estimate at present is that 158,000 SMEs may not make it through COVID, representing 14% of the SMEs across Canada.
When we talk about SMEs, we are talking about 99.7% of all businesses. They account for more than 70% of private sector employment, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. It really is staggering to see those numbers.
In the face of that, surely the last thing a responsible government would do, as businesses are struggling like never before, would be to raise taxes on businesses. Evidently, across the way we have an irresponsible government, because that is precisely what the government is proceeding to do, starting with a payroll tax increase on January 1.
When we talk about payroll taxes, it is important to recognize that they are cumbersome from an administrative standpoint, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. They have to be paid regardless of the profitability of the business.
According to a study from the University of Toronto's policy and economic analysis program, 64,000 jobs are projected to be lost as a result of the government's payroll tax hikes. That estimate was prior to COVID-19. I would submit that that number is probably significantly higher now, considering the enormous challenges small and medium-sized businesses in particular are facing due to COVID. Very simply, now is not the time to increase payroll taxes for struggling small businesses.
As bad as a payroll tax hike is, it gets worse, because businesses are going to be hit with a Liberal double whammy in the way of a hike to the job-killing tax on everything, the Liberal government's favourite tax, the carbon tax. It is a tax that disproportionately burdens small businesses. Indeed, small and medium-sized businesses pay more than 50% of the carbon tax and get only a fraction of the rebates.
In the face of that, we are calling on the government to do the responsible thing and support struggling businesses. Supporting them will allow them to keep more money so they can invest, address cash flow issues, pay down debt, and keep their lights on and their doors open.
I hope the government heeds the advice and follows through on what we, on this side of the House, are proposing to do. It is eminently reasonable.