Finance committee  For many of them, you can imagine that what they're paying exceeds what their savings are able to generate in interest. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business surveys its members and puts out report cards on Canada's banks. They consistently get low scores for their customer service, access to capital, and fees. According to research from Payments Canada and Ernst & Young, Canadian businesses pay $14 billion to $32 billion every five years just to receive and send money.

Carbon Pricing  Speaker, the number one concerns for Canadian farm families are Liberal regulations and carbon taxes. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business surveyed its members and asked for their top three priorities. Number one was to reduce the regulatory and red tape burden. Number two was to reduce the overall tax burden.

Small Business  All parties in the Quebec National Assembly are calling for an extension. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is calling for an extension. The Bloc Québécois wrote to the Minister of Finance today calling for an extension. It is unanimous. Everyone understands that we cannot afford a wave of bankruptcies and job losses in this economy.

Finance committee  I have hotels that are buying motels to house their employees. It's just a whole pile of run-on things. I've been working with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and TIAC to try to get the government to extend that because, like you say, it's not that they can't pay them back. It's that they were forced to pay them back over a relatively short period of time.

Small Business  Speaker, our SMEs are unable to repay their CEBA loans on time after being squeezed by inflation. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 250,000 businesses will go bankrupt next year if the federal government does not offer them some flexibility. The Quebec National Assembly has heard this dire warning.

Small Business  Speaker, nearly 2,000 small businesses in Quebec have already declared bankruptcy in the past year. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, this is just the beginning. One in five businesses expects to close within the next year. However, the elephant in the room is that 60% of bankruptcies across Canada happen in Quebec, because small business is an economic model there.

Small Business  Speaker, a wave of bankruptcies is coming for our small and medium-sized businesses if the federal government does not wake up. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business sounded that alarm today on the Hill. The government is giving SMEs an extra 18 days to get bank loans, but that is not going to help the SMEs that are in debt up to their eyeballs and have been struggling for three years to pay back their emergency loan.

Small Business  Speaker, a cloud of bankruptcy is looming over our companies, and this is only just the beginning. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 250,000 small and medium-sized businesses, or SMEs, are at risk of closing this year because they are unable to repay their CEBA loans on time. It is wrong to suggest, as Ottawa is doing, that extending the deadline by three months will miraculously resolve this problem.

Small Business  Of course, a few minutes later, when they had had a chance to read the fine print, they realized with disappointment that what the government had done was something very incremental and not at all what had been asked for by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and thousands of small businesses, including businesses in northwest B.C., the area I am proud to represent. The most attractive part of the loans for small businesses that were struggling was the fact that the government had offered a significant loan forgiveness program.

Business of Supply  One does not have to be a democratic socialist to be upset about this. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business thinks it is a bad idea, and it is upset about it too. Both employers and employees are rightly upset about the fact that the federal government has once again decided to go grab out of the EI piggy bank, which is not what it is.

Canada Business Corporations Act  On a cautionary note, it is always important to give consideration to stakeholders and their concerns. Small business is the backbone of this country's economy. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business raised a number of concerns, and I want to talk about some of them here. It raised the issue of privacy and personal security. It said many small business owners are concerned about having their information available to the general public, such as name, place of residence, date of birth, citizenship, telephone number, etc.

Canada Business Corporations Act  Mr. Speaker, in regard to Bill C-42, we were approached by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, or CFIB, which asked us to determine how we could help businesses, because one of the challenges is all the red tape that comes with this. We definitely agree that there should be more transparency, but at the same time we must ensure that this burden is not shouldered by all businesses, which are already struggling to survive because of all the paperwork.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you know, representatives of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business were scheduled to attend today, but the Federation cancelled its appearance on Friday, according to a letter received by Committee members today. The Federation has nonetheless shared some of its concerns with us, and I have turned them into questions.

Business of Supply  As my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable said, according to the report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, there is an effect, but it is difficult to pinpoint the price exactly because it is the business that must absorb the costs. The second Liberal carbon tax will have a direct impact, in that families will need to pay $436 more.

Business of Supply  In Quebec, this system is less visible than a carbon tax. I will quote from the report of the CFIB, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. It says that the “cap-and-trade system is less visible than a carbon tax because it because it involves creating a market mechanism for allocating the right to emit a certain amount of carbon in the form of allowances....Therefore, there is little information on the pass-through cost of prices within the system that affects both SMEs and consumers.”