Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Ghatala. The representatives of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business now have five minutes to give their presentation.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Jasmin. CFIB regularly surveys our farm members on issues that impact their agribusiness. It is clear that farmers care about the environment. In fact, almost 80% of farmers have taken action in the last several years to lessen their environmental impact, including 85% of those in the field crop sector.

Agriculture committee  We're joined by Fred Ghatala, director of carbon and sustainability at Advanced Biofuels Canada; and Jasmin Guénette, vice-president of national affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Good afternoon, Mr. Guénette. We're also joined by Virginia Labbie, a senior policy analyst for agri-business. We'll start the presentations. Mr. Ghatala, you have the floor for five minutes.

Finance committee  Many industries can't even fill the 25% gap, which continues to keep employees laid off. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the CFIB, about 20% of Canadian small business owners are contemplating closing their business, which would equate to 2.4 million jobs at risk across Canada. To survive this, small business owners need CEBA debt forgiveness as well as HST forgiveness, especially for those who are hardest hit.

Industry committee  Thank you. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said that the decrease could be because of certain cuts to red tape the government has put in place, but it could also be due to employing a third party to deal with this regulatory burden.

Industry committee  Going back to some of my notes on our competitiveness study, I have that “Canada's Red Tape Report” indicated that the amount of time spent on regulation by business owners has decreased since 2017. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said that could be attributable to businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises, being downloaded costs for certain activities, such as consultants and that kind of work.

Income Tax Act  As we can imagine, it has overwhelming support across the country including from the Chicken Farmers of Canada, Grain Growers of Canada, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and chambers of commerce, just to name a few, not to mention every Canadian small business owner who seeks to keep their business in the family. For too long this situation has continued unabated, but why is that?

Human Resources committee  Mr. Gray, I note as well that when we had the Canadian Federation of Independent Business here, they had the recommendation that no new permanent changes be introduced until our economy recovers. I noted that similarity in your opening remarks. I'm wondering if you could explain further as to why.

Human Resources committee  Part of ensuring that those benefits continue to exist is ensuring the sustainability of the program. Last week at our committee we heard from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which suggested that no permanent changes be made to the EI program until our economy has recovered. It also raised concerns about the impact that higher payroll taxes would have on our economic recovery.

Human Resources committee  The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the CFIB, has said that self-employed workers are not prepared to contribute.

The Budget  We wrote a letter, which brought together pretty interesting allies such as the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the president of Unifor. We said that it had to be at least 75% or higher. We fought hard and we won, so Canadians could see themselves in their jobs. We covered 75% of people's salaries to keep people employed, saving millions of jobs.

The Environment  I was encouraged to see well-respected climate organizations such as Clean Prosperity call this plan “a significant step in the right direction”. It was also encouraging to see the Canadian Federation of Independent Business immediately recognize the benefits of our plan that would fix the unfair cross-subsidization burden imposed on businesses by the Liberal plan. We all get that the current Liberal government does not like ideas that are not from its own cabinet, but let us not forget that every single climate plan and every target that a Liberal government has set, going back as far as 1993, has massively failed.

Human Resources committee  Good afternoon. Thank you very much for being with us. I salute the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, or CFIB. Before I became a member of Parliament, I had the opportunity to work with the CFIB, particularly in Quebec, with Martine Hébert, on the Commission des partenaires du marché du travail, a forum for social dialogue where labour issues and labour conditions were very important.

Human Resources committee  I just want to share back with you some of the things you said in your opening remarks. You said that CFIB, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, represents 95,000 small businesses in Canada. Is that correct?

Human Resources committee  Colleagues, this is Corinne Pohlmann, senior vice-president, national affairs and partnerships with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. You have the floor for five minutes. Welcome.