Industry committee  I'd also like to offer our support to the witnesses you heard on Tuesday from both the Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. You heard a lot about red tape and administrative burden from those witnesses. We are fully aligned with what they presented to you on Tuesday. We would therefore like to offer input in some additional areas of the regulatory system.

Business of Supply  Quebec has a labour shortage. More than 1,000 positions are vacant according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. We will continue to work with Quebec on its files. Here in the House last Wednesday, the Prime Minister himself said that there was a labour shortage. The Minister of National Revenue says she wants no lost jobs.

Industry committee  Thanks. I'll refer you to the slides that are in front of you. Slide 3 shows that the smallest businesses actually pay the largest per-employee cost of regulation. From a small business perspective, the cost of regulation is regressive and puts the smallest businesses at the biggest disadvantage because they don't benefit from the economies of scale that larger businesses would.

Industry committee  Thank you very much. We're going to move to Laura Jones, with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Industry committee  We want to start by thanking the committee for inviting us to present today. We appreciate the opportunity to share the perspective of small business on the impact of Canada's regulatory structure. Regulation is among the most important issues we hear about from our 110,000 small business members across Canada.

Industry committee  Today, from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, we have Ryan Greer, Senior Director, Transportation and Infrastructure Policy. From the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, we have Laura Jones, Executive Vice-President, and Corinne Pohlmann, Senior Vice-President, National Affairs and Partnerships. We're going to begin with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Intergovernmental Relations  Quebec has a labour shortage. More than 1,000 positions are vacant according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. We will continue to work with Quebec on these issues. However, it would be important to highlight, in both official languages, that the Conservative approach on a single payer for immigration is not something we think is acceptable to the rest of the country, and certainly not to us either.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. We will now go to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and Ms. Monique Moreau, please.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. You should have a slide presentation in front of you that I'd like to walk you through over the next few minutes. CFIB is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization representing more than 110,000 small and medium-size businesses across Canada.

Business of Supply  They are one of the main drivers of our economy and the most affected by high taxes, burdensome regulations and the carbon tax. According to a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, one third of business owners are bothered so much by government regulation that they say they would have preferred not going into business in the first place. Is that not sad?

Business of Supply  Speaker, the government has commented so much about making fact-based decision-making, but it shows once again: it is great at making announcements, but gets a D on delivery. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business did a massive survey of thousands upon thousands of businesses. It heard very clearly that the increases in the payroll tax are going to come at the expense of lower wage increases for employees and fewer job opportunities.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, all, for being here today. I'm going to start with Empower Me. In the previous hour, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business talked about barriers that businesses faced. There was testimony that many businesses couldn't afford to get into these rebate programs because the upfront cost of the audit and the installation was too much, yet you're talking about how it's important to have that accountability in the program.

Natural Resources committee  My question goes to the representatives of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Have you done any studies with your members? Other witnesses have told us that exporting energy efficiency is an expanding market with a lot of potential. Have you conducted a study with your members, specifically on their export potential?

Natural Resources committee  Excellent. With us here today from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business are Monique Moreau and Emilie Hayes. Thank you, all, for joining us. Each group will be given up to 10 minutes to make a presentation. Following that, we're going to open the floor to questions from around the table.

Natural Resources committee  Perfect.