Debates of March 9th, 2021

Opposition Motion—Measures to Support Canadian Workers

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, as my colleague outlined, the travel agent industry is predominantly composed of women, who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Any bailout of the transport sector and the air sector has to be contingent on refunds to consumers who have bought tickets and have not been reimbursed. However, we must also ensure that the commissions collected initially by travel agents are not going to be taken from them, because that would be completely unfair. They are already feeling the brunt of the huge impacts of COVID-19, and the government absolutely needs to make sure changes are contingent on protecting travel agents, who, again, have been disproportionately impacted.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Courtenay—Alberni for his speech. I often find myself nodding along when my colleague talks about the situation with salmon in his region, as well as when he talks about small businesses.

I broached the subject earlier with the parliamentary secretary. I may have asked too many questions at once, and maybe that is why I did not get an answer. I would like to ask my colleague from Courtenay—Alberni about back-to-work incentives, which are somewhat absent from the Liberal government's management of the pandemic.

I spoke earlier about restaurant franchise owners in my region and how, in times of full employment, they hire foreign workers who agree to settle here and take low-wage jobs that are very difficult to fill with Canadian and Quebec workers.

I would like to hear my colleague's opinion about this. Does he also believe that employment incentives are needed to help small businesses, especially franchise owners, survive the pandemic?

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad my colleague brought up wild salmon, because where I live, if we do not invest in wild salmon we will not have a healthy economic recovery on Vancouver Island.

He talked about the importance of incentives for hiring people, and I think about the many people who have been disproportionately impacted, especially youth. They have been left out, and we need to make sure that we continue to work together to apply pressure on the government to create programs for youth, whether they are for relief regarding EI and the CPP or for hiring youth. We should expand the Canada summer jobs program, especially targeting groups that have been disproportionately impacted, such as indigenous and Black Canadians. We need to provide supports and training programs for them as well. Many businesses will not be able to rebuild themselves for years to come, so we need to ensure they get the training and support they need to feed their families and move forward as they transition to another career.

[Scott Duvall, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Courtenay—Alberni for all the great work he has done on this file. It has been tremendous.

A previous speaker mentioned the Association of Canadian Independent Travel Advisors and the importance of including travel advisors in the transportation recovery plan. Not only do they work completely on commission, but they are being told now that if the airlines have to pay back consumers, their commissions will have to be paid back. This work was done about a year and a half ago and the money has been spent. If they are not included in the recovery plan, it will create huge hardships on their families and will possibly result in thousands of personal bankruptcy cases.

Does the member agree with me that it is imperative for them to be included?

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his service, as I know he is not running again, and for the important work he has done for seniors and protecting workers' pensions. All Canadians and every member of the House are grateful for the work he has done.

As for travel agents who have been disproportionately impacted, I cannot believe we would support any agreement without protecting travel agents. That sector is primarily dominated by women and, as we stated earlier, women have been disproportionately impacted throughout this pandemic. We need to make sure that any support for the transport sector, especially for consumer refunds, which we support, also protects travel agents and ensures that they do not have to pay that money back. That is absolutely critical, and our support would be contingent on it.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I normally start my speeches by saying that I am pleased to be joining in the debate, which I normally am. However, although I support this motion 100%, I am not pleased that we are one full year into the pandemic and we require a motion such as this to get the Liberal government to act to support small businesses in tour and travel business. A year ago this week, we suspended Parliament because of the pandemic, and we are still begging for support from the government.

This motion includes three main parts: introducing sector-specific measures to support workers in tourism and charitable sectors; providing repayable loans to airlines, not subsidies, not a handout, to ensure they continue to function, but also so refunds to customers who have not been able to take their flights are made; resuming flights to rural areas and areas affected by airline slowdowns; and improving support programs, including lending supports for small and medium-sized businesses.

The Liberals' approach to the whole pandemic and their support for small business reminds me a lot of a Seinfeld episode called “The Engagement”, when Newman and Kramer steal a dog to shut it up. Eventually the police come and arrest Newman and Kramer. Newman says, à la David Berkowitz, “What took you so long?”

What is taking the government so long to act? Of course, we had the CERB rollout very fast, supported by ourselves, the NDP, Bloc and independent members, but then we had the wage subsidy, originally starting out as a paltry 10%. It was months and months before it was rolled out to help small businesses. By that point, layoffs had happened. There were closures because of no revenue. They could not afford to sit and wait, As a result, we have lost jobs. The Liberals finally agreed with the opposition and moved up the wage support to 75%, but it was such a long wait.

It is the same with the rent subsidy. Why did it take so long? It was a flawed subsidy to begin with, one that put money in the pockets of landlords Landlords applied for the subsidy, not the tenants. We heard about a lot of cases with landlords putting their foot on the necks of small businesses, retailers and restaurants, demanding money up front. The retailers, restaurants and small businesses, because they were not getting the direct support, were left basically helpless.

There is a wonderful business in Edmonton called Axe Monkeys. The owner, Dave, is a wonderful guy. They have axe throwing events. Even with a massive turndown and loss of revenues, he still has charity nights every week to help out local charities. He had a landlord who refused to go through the process of applying for the rent subsidy and told Axe Monkeys to cough up the full rent or all its supplies and goods would be seized. The rent subsidy was a complete failure. The Liberals eventually changed it, but, again, why did they wait so long?

Who did not have to wait very long for the wage subsidy was Katie Telford's husband. As we know. Katie Telford is the chief of staff to the Prime Minister. Her husband's company got $84 million pretty darn fast when the Liberals needed it to run this flawed program.

Who else did not have to wait for help from the Liberal government? WE Charity managed to get $900 million pretty darn fast when they needed it. That is the same WE Charity, of course, that paid the Prime Minister's wife, brother and mother almost half a million dollars in fees; the same WE Charity that was employing then finance minister Morneau's daughter; the same WE Charity that paid then finance minister Morneau's $50,000 luxury getaway. It did not have to wait. Did it have to wait for it to go through Treasury Board's rules? No. The Treasury Board president told us at committee that the WE grant did not even go through the Treasury Board process. The Treasury Board's rules are rules. They are not suggestions. For WE Charity, there was no problem. Money went out the door. Small businesses, sit and wait. Rent subsidies, sit and wait. Everyone else not connected to the Liberal Party, sit and wait.

Further, the Liberals violated the Official Languages Act, because the grants that were given to WE Charity had to go through an official languages assessment before they were approved. The Treasury Board president, who is from Quebec City, stated that the official languages analysis was not done. A couple of weeks ago in Parliament, the Liberals told us how the French language was under attack across the country. We heard about attacks on Premier Kenney and Premier Ford about not doing enough to protect the French Language. However, the senior Liberal minister from Quebec City purposely ignored the rules to give a grant to a Liberal-friendly group—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would remind my colleague that he may want to split his time.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

I do not recall the member for Edmonton West indicating he wished to share his time, but he can do so at this time.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from Saskatoon West reminding me that I am splitting my time with the member for Cloverdale—Langley City.

Guess who also did not have to wait for handouts from the Liberal government. Former Liberal member of Parliament Frank Baylis received about a third of a billion dollars for ventilators not even approved anywhere in the country. We have small businesses, restaurants and airlines all waiting for action by the government, but there is nothing. However, for those connected to the Liberal Party, the ATM is open and they can go on in.

I grew up in the hospitality industry. I worked from Victoria to Newfoundland, in northern Alberta and northern Ontario. The hotel and restaurant tourism industry is an incredible industry. It is larger than farming, mining, fishing and forestry. It is also the very first job for many newcomers to our country and many young people. Decades and decades ago it was an industry in which women had broken the glass ceiling, long before banking, government or any other industry. It was also a warm and welcoming industry for those in the LGBTQ community, where they could be accepted without worry. It is an incredible industry. More important than just the finances this industry creates, there is also the social aspect as a first job. We need action from the government to support this industry.

A lot of things could be done right now, such as returning the HST-GST to hotels, supporting cities so they can grant property tax referrals to small businesses in the hotels and setting up tax credits for future conferences, when we come out of the pandemic, to help large employers and hotels. We could open up the parks for free stays and reduce fees at airports. A quarter of a billion dollars are collected in security fees, more than is paid out for security at airports. I heard the transport minister chime in earlier, and I hope this is something at which he will look. NavCan increased its fees. Airlines are getting wiped out. Their loads are down 90% and NavCan is increasing fees and security fees are going up. We could do a lot of things.

We hear numbers like 60% of restaurants could be shut down by the end of the pandemic. This is a perfect time for the Liberal government to eliminate the escalator fees for taxes. People may not know that these taxes go up every year and they are not approved by Parliament. They and happen automatically. Now is the perfect time to eliminate them. We could get rid of the added carbon tax that is hurting small businesses.

The government should be doing a lot of things to help small businesses, hotels, restaurants, travel agents and the airlines. It is time for the government to stop leaving Canadians behind and to start looking after them, not just Liberal insiders such as at WE or other well-connected insiders. It is time to put Canadians first, which is why I support this motion 100%.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague two questions about the benefits of the Canada emergency wage subsidy.

First, how can my colleague boast that the improvements were proposed by the Conservative Party, when they were actually proposed by the Bloc Québécois at the Standing Committee on Finance? I should know, seeing as I was there.

Second, how can my colleague talk about how we need to pay the wage subsidy to struggling organizations while knowing full well that the Conservative Party, which, as far as I know, is not in especially dire financial straits, received almost $716,000 from the program? Can my colleague tell me if his party is going to pay that money back and, if so, when?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, if my colleague looked back at press releases and other things, she would see that the Conservative Party from day one was advocating for a faster and higher wage subsidy, well before the Bloc Québécois did.

As for the wage subsidy for the parties, we made it clear that when the other parties step up to return theirs, we will return ours as well.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my hon. colleague, for whom I have a lot of respect. His history of WE Charity is something I have been living very closely. He mentioned Frank Baylis.

Our committee studied the issue with respect to Frank Baylis and he was not found to have used his Liberal Party connections. It is important to be accurate on the record, because there is enough skulduggery going on with the Liberals that one could spend days and weeks working in the Liberal fields of corruption, but I do not think we need to go to areas where those deals were not made.

I would like to ask my hon. colleague this. The Conservatives say that they are concerned about small business, but I have people calling me every day because their EI is running out. We know the Conservatives are blocking moving this legislation through the House. We need to get emergency measures out to people now.

Therefore, in a sign of good faith, would the Conservatives be willing to pass the motion to get the emergency benefits to people who are going to lose their EI now? Then we can talk about continuing help for other sectors as well.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am sorry for bringing up WE. I am sure it sends shivers through his spine, like early PTSD.

If he wants to talk about Mr. Baylis, I will bring up another issue. When he was on the industry committee, that same Liberal MP lobbied a bit on a government contract. He lobbied the committee for more money for research. He ended up getting that contract about two months after he left. Sure the member can pass off one Liberal insider issue regarding ventilators, but others have to be looked at.

As for the subsidies, the Conservative Party has been there from day one supporting the government to get subsidies out fast. With Bill C-14, we have asked that the bill be split so we can get that part approved quickly, but that other issues, such as the $1.83 trillion debt limit, be debated separately.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to hand it to my NDP colleague. Moments ago we heard him say that we should put the bickering and individual personal attacks aside and focus on a real question. What did the member for Edmonton West say in response? He diverted it right back to personal attacks on the individual, which the member from the NDP asked that he not do.

I will ask the member a very pointed question. If he is so interested in small businesses and getting them the supports they need, I will read to him a quote from Dan Kelly of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business regarding Bill C-14. He said, “Bill C-14 has some important measures...CFIB urges all parties to ensure this support is passed quickly.”

His party held that up in here and then yesterday voted against it. What does he have to say to Dan Kelly and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the height of irony is the member for Kingston and the Islands criticizing someone for a personal attack. I do not think that gentleman has once stepped into the House without spewing personal attacks on other members of the House.

Getting back to his question, Bill C-14 passed. However, where his government has been for two years without a budget? It could have put this support through at any time, perhaps in the summer, when it was not proroguing to avoid an investigation into a scandal. I suggest this gentleman look in the mirror and ask the question of himself and his party as to why it has taken so long, an entire year after the pandemic started, to get some of this support out.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Mr. Speaker, for more than a year now, I have been talking with women across my riding and across the country, many of whom are the main breadwinner of the family and have been faced with juggling the responsibilities of child care during imposed school closures with keeping their small businesses afloat. They have not been able to access income support because their industry does not qualify.

Particularly impacted are the many independent travel agents across the country, who worked tirelessly to assist travellers with repatriation flights at the beginning of the pandemic and later with attempts to get refunds for trips that would no longer be taken.

There are over 24,000 travel agents in Canada, over 75% of whom are women. Around 90% of travel agents are currently laid off. Many earn their income entirely by commission and are faced with commission clawbacks. These ladies worked long hours with no pay to ensure that they fulfilled what they considered was their responsibility towards their clients. They received no compensation for the hundreds of hours they spent working to re-book flights and attempting to get refunds for as many of them as possible. These travel agents did it because they are passionate about providing quality service from start to finish.

I have heard many on the government side reminiscing today about how we are now at the one-year anniversary of the pandemic. This serves to highlight the fact that they were not paying attention when this catastrophe actually started and why Canada has been consistently late from the very beginning.

As a matter of fact, it was clear that there was already trouble last year in January, not March, when my local Chinese dance association cancelled its New Year's celebration in Langley to protect our community—yet, following that clear warning cry, our health officials told us not to worry, that there was no need for masks and no need for travel restrictions.

The next clear sign that all was not well happened on the Diamond Princess at the end of January, not March. While the Liberals were busy twiddling their thumbs, independent travel advisers were getting frantic calls from their customers who were being quarantined on the ship. These courageous women worked hard to calm fears and get answers from wherever they could. We only need to look to them to understand how little the government was doing back when it could have made a huge impact on ensuring it was protecting our borders and our airports much earlier.

My sister is an independent travel agent with CruiseShipCenters. We have been struggling together with the impact of COVID since January, not March. She and her colleagues have moved heaven and earth to get their customers home safe. What did they get in return? Nothing. There was no support and no recognition, just dead air.

Just recently she was in the office celebrating her 20th year in the travel business. Her colleagues brought balloons and games to try to put a brave and cheerful face on what has been a horrendous year of incredible stress and no financial help. As they were about to cut the cake, the Liberal government announced that there would be no cruises into Vancouver until March 2022. Everyone burst into tears.

This was completely out of the blue and absolutely avoidable, had the Liberal government not been asleep at the wheel from the start.

There is another example: the many women entrepreneurs who run our local dance studios. They face the decimation of their industry despite their incredible efforts to pivot under the new COVID protocols, which changed without warning from day to day. They tried to encourage their thousands of students with the hope that their dance dreams would not be dashed. In the end, many of them have had to close their doors under the pressure of a year-long lockdown. Bills piled up, festivals and competitions were cancelled, student enrolment declined, staff moved on, and hope dwindled.

This week we are honouring these women in our communities who have fought to keep their small businesses open during a once-in-a-lifetime disaster. Their dedication to the health and wellness of our neighbourhoods is something more valuable than we can truly appreciate. However, they are reaching their breaking point. Help cannot be delayed any longer.

Today we have an opportunity to do more than just post something on social media in support of women. Today we can work towards providing solutions for those job creators who find themselves most impacted by lockdowns.

Lauren van den Berg, from Restaurants Canada, recently told the finance committee that thousands of restaurants are staring down the barrel of a gun. She said:

Two decades of growth were erased in two months at this time last year. Essentially, our industry fell off a cliff and then broke both legs. The truth is, we're still struggling. Prior to the pandemic, the food service sector was Canada's fourth-largest employer. We directly employed 1.2 million people. However, our industry lost more jobs in the first six weeks of the pandemic than the entire Canadian economy lost during the 2008-09 recession. No other industry has come close to facing this level of shortfall. There are still more than 380,000 fewer jobs in the Canadian food service sector than there were in February 2020.

For restaurant owners and so many other small businesses, this motion for immediate sector-specific measures to help the hospitality industry cannot come soon enough. People are at the end of their rope, and it is starting to fray.

I cannot say how frustrated I was yesterday to learn that our Prime Minister had the gall to virtue-signal yet again with an announcement that his government's recovery plans will be crafted to help women bounce back from the shutdown. Here we are, more than a year into the pandemic, and only just yesterday we finally heard the government admit that in fact we are not all in this together. No, as a matter of fact: Women, and women entrepreneurs especially, have been hardest hit from the very beginning. How is it possible that only just now is it dawning on the Liberals that they need to focus their support programs on those who have been falling through the cracks from day one?

The report published Monday by the Labour Market Information Council states that women were more severely impacted in this recession than any other income group, and to this day they are the furthest away from recovery. I have been shouting this from the rooftop for months.

Another thing we were recently told at the finance committee is that the average small business owner has taken on $170,000 in debt that is not even bank debt. Many of these businesses are small family-run operations. The owners have been struggling day by day to keep the doors open. Family members are called on to pitch in with busing tables, serving customers and washing dishes while caring for children and aging parents. They have been stretched to the maximum. They are losing sleep and they are losing hope. Now, on top of all that, they bear a heavy debt load as well. Through no fault of their own, this pandemic will stretch on much longer in Canada than in our other G7 partners. Slow vaccine procurement and a refusal to ensure a robust system of tracking and tracing have ensured that people will have to endure far longer than necessary. The government has failed miserably.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business stated that one in six independent businesses across Canada is at a significant risk of closing. That means there could be 181,000 fewer small, independently owned and operated businesses across the country, businesses that go bankrupt or wind down permanently, directly as a result of COVID and the damage sustained due to lockdown. That would represent 2.4 million Canadian private sector jobs being taken out at the same time.

We need to stop the bleeding now. Businesses need certainty. They need to know what they can expect. They need to be able to plan.

Then, without warning, the Liberals announced that they do not even plan to table a budget. Budgets are the most basic of planning devices that every entrepreneur knows they need to have. Without a plan, they are simply planning to fail. The current government has failed to produce a budget since 2019. That is two full years of spending chaos. We have been told by the PBO that the Liberals are spending so much so fast that they cannot even track it, yet they made sure to set aside extra funds for CRA audits of small businesses in the midst of this disaster.

I am begging the government to put itself in the shoes of small business owners, hard-working families who have sacrificed everything to keep their dreams alive. These desperate Canadians are looking to the government for real support, not another expert panel headed by a journalist turned finance minister who has no idea what it is like to build a business from scratch.

From the very beginning, the opposition has had to clean up these messes that the Liberals keep making. It blows my mind that more than a year into this pandemic, it takes another opposition motion to compel the government to do what industry leaders and small business owners have been calling for all along. I am assuming that the government has had the same stakeholder meetings with airlines, the tourism and hospitality industries, and organizations that represent small businesses that we on this side of the House have also had, and all they got from government was a complete lack of urgency.

It is this lack of urgency, the current government's catalogue of mistargeted programs, and its failure to give the provinces any options but lockdown that led to the prolongation of this pandemic for Canadians. We are going to be locked down for months longer than the rest of the world, and we need answers. Canadians deserve better.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that this member touched on cruise ships. My parents were on the Grand Princess, which was the cruise ship that was stuck off the coast of California for a number of days. They were quarantined in their cabin for five days before being led out of that ship by Canadian personnel, boarded onto a cargo flight that had been converted to have seats, and brought back to Trenton, where they they went into quarantine.

Do you know what my father said about that flight, Mr. Speaker? He said that as that flight was taking off the ground on its way back to Canada, the entire cabin of 150 passengers broke out into singing O Canada.

This government has been there from day one to support Canadians and has been there every step of the way, giving Canadians the supports they need to get through this pandemic. If this member is so interested in helping small businesses, why did she vote against Bill C-14 last night?

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I also had a constituent and her husband who were on the Diamond Princess. She and her parents were stuck in quarantine for a long time. They had to stay in Japan because her parents both caught COVID, and in the end her father passed away. This was their anniversary gift to their parents. The incredible sadness they had to go through was enormous.

These travel advisers worked to help people get home and be repatriated, along with my own staff. Getting out of some of these countries was an absolute nightmare. We spent many nights working overnight, trying to get people onto planes. It was an absolute nightmare, and many people will say what a disaster it was just trying to get onto those planes.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I was very touched just a moment ago by the member for Kingston and the Islands when he was speaking of everyone on that repatriation flight back to Canada.

My experience as an MP, like the experience of my friend from Cloverdale—Langley City, was working around the clock to try to get people home from places around the world. If there was anyone working harder than all of us as individual MPs, it was the staff of the minister for global affairs and his hon. parliamentary secretary, who were all working very hard and diligently to get Canadians home.

I hate the partisanship that has entered into our debate on these issues. Everyone worked as hard as they possibly could. There were failings and shortcomings, but where we will agree is that there is a need for filling the gaps fast for small businesses that are still at risk. The highly affected sector program, with its cap on $1 million for loans, will not meet the needs of a lot of our tourism sector.

Would the Conservative motion we are debating today cap the amount of help that would be going out? The motion suggests taking the same approach as the highly affected sector loan program.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is very important to recognize that we need to pull out the stops for small business. The numbers that I mentioned that we got from the CFIB as to how many small business are going to fail if we do not start helping right now and do it well is absolutely astronomical. We know that we will not be able to return from this disastrous situation of a lengthy lockdown without the maximum help possible for small businesses.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I was very moved by the member's comments about small businesses and the struggles they have faced during this pandemic. As we see the government struggle with the procurement and distribution of vaccines, we are all very much concerned about the economy. If the Liberals have failed so badly in procuring and distributing these vaccines, how can we possibly rely on them to restore our economy and get Canadians working again?

What confidence does the member have in the current government to get this country returning to anywhere near its pre-pandemic status in terms of jobs for Canadians, the Canadian life we once knew and the quality of life we hope to achieve again as a nation?

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have to say I do not have confidence in the Liberals. When I saw they shut down the cruises into Vancouver until March 2022, I recognized they did not have Vancouver and British Columbia in mind. They are just not thinking ahead. They are constantly putting out fires and they are really harming our economy more and more by the day.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Davenport.

I would like to thank my colleagues for their thoughts and contributions to this debate on the impact of the pandemic on Canadians, small businesses and various sectors of our economy.

This has definitely been a very difficult year for so many Canadians across the country. In recent months, and particularly in recent weeks, with the acceleration of vaccine deliveries to the provinces, we have reason to hope that better days are coming. I know they are coming, but until then, the federal government is committed to doing whatever it takes to help Canadians weather the crisis. That is what we have been doing since the beginning of the pandemic.

I am always pleased to discuss federal programs to support Canadian workers and small businesses. However, I am a little surprised that now, one year later, this is a new focus for my colleagues from the Conservative Party. After all, it was the member for Carleton, the then Conservative finance critic, who proudly proclaimed he and all Conservative members did not believe in “big, fat government programs” and that the COVID-19 pandemic's economic impacts could be addressed with just a few tax cuts.

In this light, let us then take a moment to appreciate just how far we have come and take stock of the Conservative motion before us today, which aims to broaden existing programs, increase government expenditures and even create new programs. In short, it sounds like now they are asking us to make our existing government programs even bigger and fatter.

Have no doubt, when it comes to our position and the position of the entire government, we knew from the very beginning, one year ago, that we had to intervene to ensure Canadians and Canadian small businesses had the supports they needed, and intervene we did. We quickly put into place Canada's COVID-19 economic response plan. This plan continues to keep our economy stable, protect jobs and give Canadians the means to support their families.

One of the first measures we implemented was the Canada emergency response benefit, or CERB, so folks could continue to pay their rent and mortgages, and feed their children, while doing their part to defeat the virus by staying home. Between March and October, as the House knows, the CERB alone supported nearly nine million Canadians.

As the situation continued to evolve, we put in place other critical benefits for Canadian workers. I am pleased to report to this House that, as of February 28, the Canada recovery benefit has supported 1.8 million Canadian workers. In addition, the Canada recovery caregiving benefit has supported close to 350,000 Canadian workers, and the Canada recovery sickness benefit has supported over 400,000 Canadian workers.

We recently introduced Bill C-24 to increase the number of weeks of benefits offered under those programs, but the Conservatives do not want to debate it. I will talk more about that later.

Of course I cannot mention our support to Canadian workers without mentioning the emergency wage subsidy. We are subsidizing the paycheques of over five million Canadian workers across the country through this subsidy. Every single day I speak to entrepreneurs who tell me that, without this program, they would have been forced to lay off employees. Their team, the essence of their business, would have been gone, and it is nearly impossible to recover from that.

In early April of last year we launched the Canada emergency business account, which is an interest-free loan that provides up to $60,000 to small businesses, 33% of which is a grant. Close to 850,000 small businesses have already benefited from this critical funding. When businesses told us they needed additional help with their fixed costs, we introduced the rent subsidy program and the associated lockdown support, which is covering up to 90% of rent expenses for small businesses. There are 130,000 businesses across the country using this subsidy.

I am going to stray a bit from my remarks, but yesterday the Conservatives voted against Bill C-14, which would allow small businesses to claim the rent subsidy before their rent is due. Essentially, this measure would help businesses keep a greater cash flow and entrepreneurs weather difficult times, at no real extra cost to the federal government.

The Conservatives voted against something that would support small businesses with cash flow without allocating additional government funding. I cannot think of a more fiscally prudent way of supporting our business community, and Conservatives voted against it.

The motion before us calls upon the government to provide new support for the hardest-hit businesses. We have already done just that. In January, we launched the highly affected sectors credit, which provides low-interest loans of up to $1 million that are fully guaranteed by the federal government.

The motion also talks about providing specific support for the airline industry. My colleagues are well aware that we are currently in negotiations to provide support for this industry and that we are asking the industry to provide refunds for consumers and make certain commitments regarding regional transportation.

It is interesting that the Conservatives are proposing this motion now. Now that we are making progress on the negotiations and getting close to an agreement, the Conservatives have suddenly decided to make this their pet issue.

Our government recognizes the importance of our airline industry and will do what it takes to support it.

I am not going to sugar-coat it; all of these support programs cost money, and this government did spend a lot of money. It was money well spent. Personally, I consider myself to be somewhat fiscally conservative. We are the trustees of taxpayer dollars. We have a duty, in my view, to be prudent and wise in how we spend, but who in this House is willing to make the argument that families, workers and businesses should have gone deep into debt so that the government did not have to? Canada has a AAA credit rating, and we borrow at about a 0% interest rate. Small businesses cannot say the same.

As the parliamentary secretary responsible for small business and international trade, I am always willing to discuss with my colleagues opposite the ways we can support our entrepreneurs and business community, but there is simply no clear position being taken by the Conservative party on how to do that. For example, the Conservative member for Steveston—Richmond East complained that we are spending like there is no tomorrow. The member for Souris—Moose Mountain said government spending was leading him to be disappointed in the current state of Canada, yet here we are today debating a Conservative motion asking for more spending. While I am aware that the Conservative finance portfolio recently changed hands, and some policy changes are normal, this is close to a complete U-turn.

It is hard these days to figure out what the Conservatives actually stand for. Is it more spending, or is it less? Do they agree that Canada should run a deficit to support Canadians, or do they not? Are they asking us to spend today so that they can attack us on the deficit later? Are they refusing to sit for extended hours in the evening to delay supports for Canadians?

Bill C-24 would substantially expand support for our workers. Unfortunately, our Conservative colleagues have refused to work through the evening to debate and pass Bill C-24. The member for Kildonan—St. Paul, the critic for future workforce development and disability inclusion herself, stated that Bill C-24 was straightforward and that time is of the essence to get this bill through, but that message does not seem to have made its way to the leadership of the Conservative party.

It is a good thing Canadians know where we stand and where this government stands. They also know that we will continue to ensure Canadians and Canadian businesses are supported right through to the end of this pandemic, because protecting and supporting Canadians is, and will always be, our top priority.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like the parliamentary secretary to address a point, because she touched on it when she talked about the government spending money so that families and individuals did not have to. Of course, one of the talking points I heard from the member for Barrie—Innisfil this morning was that it is not the government's money, but the people's money, which is obviously the case. I think most people are fully aware of that.

However, when the government chooses to do it, it is taking on that responsibility as a burden for society as a whole, as opposed to individual people, so that as the society can collectively get through struggles such as those we are facing right now. I am wondering if she would like to expand on that, particularly how important it is that society take on this burden, as opposed to individuals.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, not only for his question, but for holding down the House.

I would also agree with him that, yes, the government and all of the members in the House of Commons are trustees of taxpayer dollars. This money, I truly believe, belongs to Canadians, but I also think we are responsible for supporting Canadians with this money. If it were not for our government's many programs, and if it were not for the actions taken by our government, we would see families with credit card debt increasing at exponential rates. We would see families on the street, in some cases, because they could not pay their rent or their mortgages.

I am thinking also of the five million Canadians who we are supporting through the wage subsidy and how important it is, not only to their bottom line, that they are able to keep their job and their paycheques, but that they continue to be affiliated with their business, because when the pandemic ends we want businesses to be able to open their doors quickly, and they need to keep their staff on payroll. They need to keep—