Agriculture committee  Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jasmin Guénette, and I'm the vice‑president of National Affairs of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the CFIB. I'd like to thank the committee for this invitation. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business represents 95,000 members in all sectors of the economy and in all provinces.

Finance committee  Can you repeat your question, please?

Finance committee  Approximately 70 per cent of the members we represent have businesses with about 12 to 15 employees. Our members have retail, construction, food services and accommodation businesses, among other types. Most of them are small businesses. Regarding the green transition or energy transition, we have to make sure that this transition doesn't add to operating costs for a very large number of small businesses when they have just come through two extremely tough years.

Finance committee  Do you want me to answer the question? Who are you asking?

Finance committee  I'm going to repeat some things that have already been said. A number of our recommendations are important for dealing with the labour shortage in Canada. We have already discussed it, but immigration is an important issue. We have to make sure that our businesses have access to more foreign workers, faster.

Finance committee  These are the four priorities we have defined. First, operating costs have to be reduced. As you said, there are the costs of energy and inputs, among other things. Second, there are operating costs associated with the various taxes and other charges imposed by governments. This is an issue that has to be resolved.

Finance committee  I can take the first crack at it, and perhaps you want to add something afterward, Corinne. There are a couple of things on the carbon tax. First, we saw on April 1 another increase in that tax, which is adding costs to many small businesses, especially those in agriculture. We've been saying for a couple of years now that the current carbon tax system is unfair to small business because there is no rebate system in place that is working for small businesses.

Finance committee  Sure. Thank you for your question. Indeed, we would like to see the federal government setting a clear timeline and a clear plan on what they are planning to do with regard to returning to a balanced budget. Everyone understands the investment that was necessary to be made during the pandemic to support small businesses.

Finance committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Ste-Marie. I'm going to reiterate the comments that were made at the beginning of the presentation by my colleague, Ms. Pohlmann. One of the things we would have liked to see in the budget is the effort to reduce operating costs for small and medium-sized businesses in Quebec and Canada.

Human Resources committee  Yes, the impact of labour shortages on small businesses is quite massive. Small businesses tend to be more labour intensive, so when you have a small business with five to seven employees and you lose one or two of them, that's 10% or 20% of your entire labour force that you need to replace, so the impact is quite significant on smaller employers.

Human Resources committee  Any measure that can be taken to speed up training and speed up availability of workers through work-integrated programs or any other type of training will be highly beneficial.

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Ms. Kusie. I think the maximum length, which is going from 180 to 270 days per year, is a step in the right direction. However, there would certainly be a way that would allow for even more flexibility and opportunities for entrepreneurs to be able to keep these workers more long-term.

Human Resources committee  Extension of the validity period of an LMIA to 18 months is a good thing. In fact, sometimes the assessment may take so long that it finishes when the period of employment is nearly over. As well, what I would say is that we have to make sure these assessments are done faster. It's a good thing to extend the validity period, but most importantly, these assessments have to be speeded up.

Human Resources committee  I will be very brief. There are some things we are recommending for businesses to be able to hire more youth. One is to implement measures to reduce the cost of hiring and training youth. Maybe that could be done through an employment insurance holiday for hiring and training youth and recognizing the informal training that many small businesses are doing when they hire youth.