Mr. Speaker, I am enjoying this Manitoba debate. There are a couple of things I would say.
The government, in the last budget of 2021-22, announced about $700 million for cybersecurity. It seems that it is all going to the Communications Security Establishment, which, as I mentioned in my speech, is the government's sort of cybersecurity agency under the Minister of National Defence. It is great. We do need more resources at the government level for CSE. However, I asked the minister if any of that funding was being provided for our small and medium-sized enterprises so they could boost their cybersecurity. The minister never did get a response to my email.
Again, when we are looking at small companies, it is easy for Telus, big banks and others to afford some of these things. However, if we are looking at small telecom providers, like a small Internet provider in northern B.C., the cost to meet the red tape in the bill might put them out of business. Why not take a little of that funding the government has announced and provide it to our SMEs to help them get to the level we need them to be to protect our critical infrastructure? Perhaps we can get a bit creative and look at our tax system to see if there is some sort of capital expense tax write-off or something we can provide our SMEs to help them get there, because we really need to, as I made the case in my remarks, as I am sure others will as well.
I have not heard a response to that. The government is spending the money anyway. It is spending more money than any government in history. Why not provide a little of that to our SMEs to ensure that critical infrastructure is up to par?