Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge thanked the previous questioner for the question and said he thought it was an important one, but he did not answer it. I will give him a second chance to say whether he regrets the unfortunate decision on Anbang?

Small Business  Madam Speaker, here are the facts: Fifty per cent of small businesses are closed; only 26% have accessed rent support; 60% have reduced their staff; 60,000 have already closed permanently, and one in six is on the brink. The CFIB pleaded yesterday with the government to freeze or reverse tax increases, including the CPP hike, the alcohol escalator and the carbon tax hike.

Small Business  Madam Speaker, yesterday the CFIB told the finance committee that small businesses have accumulated, on average, $170,000 in COVID debt. This debt is typically not to governments or banks, but to creditors like landlords and suppliers and cannot be deferred. This is a crisis that threatens to wipe out tens of thousands of small businesses and two and a half million jobs.

Small Business  Mr. Speaker, news reports say that small businesses have taken on $135 billion in COVID debt, which puts 2.5 million jobs at risk. Many small businesses cannot even access federal aid, but the ones that can will not be sustained on debt alone. They need a safe, open and employment-based economy.

COVID-19 Emergency Response  Madam Speaker, for months opposition parties have questioned the government about small businesses that have fallen through the cracks of their support programs, especially new businesses, and the government has said, “Don't worry; these businesses can apply for funding under the regional relief and recovery fund.”

Small Business  Mr. Speaker, we have all heard from struggling small businesses in our ridings. Small business owners do not have pensions. They do not have employer health and dental insurance, vacation pay, sick leave, maternity leave, a minimum wage or overtime payments. Owning a business is a tough life, yet thousands of Canadians with a dream and an entrepreneurial spirit do it anyway, and they provide the goods and services upon which every community depends.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, would the member like to add anything about the shameful way that despotic regimes use the Olympics as propaganda to the rest of the world?

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I would like to let the member comment further on his amendment. There is a long and shameful history of despots and dictators using the Olympic Games as propaganda to the rest of the world and as a domestic policy distraction to oppressed peoples. He mentioned the 1936 Olympics, the Olympics of shame.

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I heard the member talk about the systemic nature of what is going on in China and all the different criteria. Could the member comment further on the necessity for the government to respond specifically to the question of genocide and to answer to all the points that he made in his speech and that the motion addresses?

Standing Orders and Procedure  Mr. Speaker, the member rightly raises the conflict between being available to one's constituents and being engaged in being a legislator in Ottawa, but the criticism around the COVID committee in that period was about the denial of so many of the available tools, not just to opposition MPs but to all MPs.

Standing Orders and Procedure  Mr. Speaker, one of the tools that has already been debated today, which I felt strongly could have and should have been built into the COVID response, is a much more widespread use of vote pairing in case of a member who is ill or concerning travelling. I live far away from Ottawa, but I am close to an airport with a direct flight.

Standing Orders and Procedure  Mr. Speaker, that is a great comment. This is the chief reason why I am so opposed to the permanence of virtual voting. That unstructured time allows colleagues to interact in the chamber, or in the lobbies, or across the aisle, or to catch another member on the way out from a vote.

Standing Orders and Procedure  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join this debate. I will declare from the outset that I am not a procedural scholar or a particular expert in the Standing Orders, but I have some strong feelings about a number of ways that this place works. Also, as most other members have pointed out, my views are my own as well.

Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020  Madam Speaker, the opposition spent much of the last year doing exactly that. We proposed all the fixes the Liberals needed to make on their rent subsidy program, which was a disaster for months. The opposition was instrumental in fixing that program. The opposition was instrumental in fixing all of the shortcomings of the CEBA program that he also mentioned.

Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020  Madam Speaker, the member points out a problem well known to especially the small business community. Merchants in Canada pay the highest fees probably in the world. It is an ongoing issue that has been exacerbated by COVID. I am concerned by the lack of competition in that area.