Mr. Speaker, a community without vibrant small businesses is not a community at all.
The tourism, hospitality, arts, restaurant and accommodation sectors all lost an entire season and are now facing the prospect of a grim 2021. I also hear from business owners who, for the entirety of the past 11 months, have had to keep their doors closed, either because of restrictions or because it would be cost-prohibitive for them to open them under current conditions.
Then there are the countless entrepreneurs who were first the victims of circumstance when they opened immediately prior to or during the pandemic, and were then the victims of government red tape when the same programs they thought would help actually excluded them because their businesses were too new.
To secure our economic recovery, we need small businesses to succeed. That means a vaccine rollout that quickly gets Canadians vaccinated, and it means showing respect and support to small businesses.
We need to secure our future.