Mr. Speaker, we have all heard from struggling small businesses in our ridings. Small business owners do not have pensions. They do not have employer health and dental insurance, vacation pay, sick leave, maternity leave, a minimum wage or overtime payments. Owning a business is a tough life, yet thousands of Canadians with a dream and an entrepreneurial spirit do it anyway, and they provide the goods and services upon which every community depends.
Sadly, these hard-working Canadians have borne the brunt of COVID restrictions. While relief programs allow some business owners to cling to their life's work, they need customers and they are watching helplessly as the rest of the world surges ahead of Canada with vaccines and the end of pandemic restrictions. The government owes it to small business owners, who are burning their savings and piling on debt, to deliver vaccines to safely open the economy and save our local businesses.