Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House virtually, as they say, to speak to the motion today.
Small businesses are without a doubt the lifeblood of our economies. They support our front-line workers, provide the services our communities depend on, give back to charities, contribute nearly a third of our nation's GDP and employ 70% of the workforce in the private sector.
Our economy, though, and our small businesses were unfortunately suffering even before the pandemic. Growth in the real domestic GDP had slowed to 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2019. The annual growth rate of the real GDP in 2019 was only 1.6%, down from 2% in 2018. By comparison, real GDP in our neighbour to the south was 2.3%.
Unfortunately, the story does not get better economically as we faced the pandemic. Canada invested the most of any G20 country in its stimulus program at 16.4%. I will respectfully remind members of the government that 16.4% comes from the taxpayers, not from the government.
Despite this record spending, we continue to hold among the highest unemployment rate. At the start of COVID, our unemployment rate was 13.7% while the OECD average was 8.7%. Fast-forward to August, and our unemployment rate was at 10.2%, while the OECD average was 7.4%. That is about a 3% difference, but it literally represents millions of Canadians who should have had a job but did not because of the government.
We need economic policies that will help our economy grow quickly. Our workers need jobs, our small business owners need clients and, quite frankly, our governments need tax revenue to help the most vulnerable. There is really only one cure for all of these challenges, which is pure, unadulterated economic growth.
When economies have faced challenges in the past, whether they were world wars or other pandemics, history has shown over and over again that those who choose to rely on their workers and citizens are able to recover faster than those who rely on government-based, socialist policies.
In the United States, JFK and Ronald Reagan were able to create conditions for unparalleled economic growth by slashing tax rates and reducing needless, burdensome regulation. When we contrast the American record to the those of the Soviet Union and other Communist countries during the same time, we see they had high levels of poverty and poor rates of growth.
We often hear from members on the other side of the aisle about the Harper legacy and the Harper economy. I am going to tell them the facts, and I will ask members to remember what I said earlier about our recent recovery from the global pandemic and how we were laggards. Here we were the heroes.
From 2009 to 2015, Canada's GDP grew 13%, which was number one in the G7. We also had, from 2009 to 2015, job numbers that grew the most compared to all the G7 countries. Contrast that to now, where we are now second last coming out of this pandemic.
The evidence is overwhelming. To build back Canada stronger, we need economic policies that unleash our Canadian workers and liberate our job creators from excessive taxation and regulation. Let us get specific. Let us talk about some of these programs.
As we know, certain areas of the economy were impacted more than others during the pandemic. Tourism has had a terrible time. Hospitality has had huge challenges. For the highly affected sectors, the credit availability program was no doubt welcomed by those sectors that have struggled immensely under the weight of this pandemic.
However, we have no details. I heard members from the other side talk about the fact that they just announced the program so how could they have the details. The reality is we are nearly a year into this pandemic. The time for messing around and getting programs wrong in this iterative process is over. We need to get it right and we need to get it right out of the box. We have had enough time.
There are Canadians in a mental health crisis. There are businesses going bankrupt. There is an opioid crisis. We cannot be messing around. We need to get this right, and we need to get it right at first go.
Speaking of getting it wrong, we have the large employer financing facility. This was meant to help workers, which was a laudable goal no doubt, by injecting liquidity into some of our largest companies. Unfortunately, due to the poor design, this only had two successful applicants as of November, despite the fact there was over $5 million paid to consultants. There was $5 million paid to consultants with two successful applicants. What does this tell us? Liberal insiders do well, while the rest of Canada suffers.
When we talk about postponing the increase in the Canada pension plan and the payroll tax increase, I am surprised there is not more conversation in the media and otherwise. As of January 1, every small business owner, every employee will have a reduction in their take-home pay, this during the middle of a pandemic or coming to the end of a pandemic. We are reducing everyone's net income.
I heard members from the NDP make some excellent arguments that we needed to maintain the integrity of the CPP. Quite frankly, I agree with them. We need to ensure that program protects seniors for generations. Now is just not the right time. Maybe we could increase it in the future. I share their commitment in maintaining the sustainability of the CPP.
The next thing I would like to talk about is the postponement of the increase to the carbon tax and the alcohol escalator tax. There has been a lot of discussion on this. Members on the other side have discussed the fact that we are talking about eliminating the carbon tax. That is not in this motion. What is in the motion is to get rid of the automatic escalator. To my mind, automatic escalators have no place in Canada. What that says is that we will pass this once, but by that act, we will increase the taxes every year, in some occasions, for many years. There is a tax increase without getting parliamentary consent. I do not think that is right. In particular, in this case it is challenge.
The Prime Minister has said, in responding to a question about tax increases to pay for pandemic spending, that the last thing Canadians need to see is a tax increase right now. I agree 100% with the Prime Minister. Despite this, on April 1, the alcohol escalator tax went into gear. That meant that in 2020, the cost of beer, wine and other alcohol increased in price in the middle of a pandemic.
We know the impacts of the COVID pandemic have been devastating for the hospitality and tourism sectors. Many of these restaurants and bars survive on the sale of alcohol, their high margin items. Now we have increased the cost of that to their consumers and to them. We are penalizing them again.
I would ask the members on the other side if they really think the pandemic is a good time to increase taxes on the hospitality and tourism sectors.
Then there is the carbon tax increase. Once again we are talking about escalators. We can have the broader debate about the carbon tax on another day. Right now we are talking about whether this the time to increase the carbon tax on Canadians. Is this really the time to increase any tax on Canadians?
As many may know, I have a private member's bill. I had the PBO cost it. My private member's bill is a very modest exemption in the carbon tax on one sector, the agricultural sector. That very modest exemption in one sector of the economy will cost farmers over $250 million over the next five years, and part of that is because of the escalator.
When we broaden that out beyond the agricultural sector, beyond the small modest exemption for which I am asking to help farmers, the same one that the NDP, provincially, gave to farmers in B.C., that is $250 million. Just imagine the impact of that during the pandemic.
Canadians are hurting. The pandemic has caused incalculable harm to our physical and mental health and has significantly damaged many Canadians' finances. To help us through COVID-19, the government took a loan from the world to help them bridge the pandemic to a better day. Unfortunately, too many of these dollars were siphoned off by Liberal insiders instead of helping people in need.
However, good news is on the way. Better days are now in sight. If we want to limit the damage of the pandemic to our country, we need to expedite the defeat of this most horrible virus. The health and indeed the very lives of Canadians are at stake. The path to eliminating the virus is now clear. It depends on an effective strategy for procurement and distribution of rapid tests and—
