Finance committee  Yes, I understand that. It's still a fact that it's going to take 40 years for those benefits to actually come full circle to the people who will actually get it. A lot of the people sitting in this room may be paying a lot more into the CPP system if it's doubled, but they'll

Finance committee  Certainly our members pay taxes—there's no doubt about it. It's small and medium-sized enterprises.

Finance committee  Oh, absolutely. They'll incorporate it into their costs, and they'll try to figure out ways to make it work.

Finance committee  I would tell you right now that a lot of small business owners are struggling. They're doing okay, because they've gotten through the tough period, but they don't want to see increases in taxes coming at this time, whether it's corporate income taxes or payroll taxes.

Finance committee  One hundred and eight thousand.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  Our members would not be supportive of raising corporate taxes at this time. I think it's something they would find difficult to absorb, given all the other things they are facing in this economy. So that would be something our members would not support. We've asked them in the p

Finance committee  It would bring instability. They're planning for a certain type of taxation right now. It would make them think about what other options they might have for hiring or investments, because now more money is going into taxation rather than into their businesses.

Finance committee  I think investments in targeted measures that we know are working, that we know are producing results, can be helpful. Another is the BizPal initiative, which is an initiative out of Industry Canada that provides information to small businesses from all three levels of governme

Finance committee  We just want to make sure that there's a voluntary component out there, and the more options there are, the better it will be.

Finance committee  As I mentioned in my opening remarks, payroll taxes, generally, have a pretty big impact on small companies, and from the perspective of small business owners, CPP is a payroll tax, since they pay 50% on behalf of their employees. We have actually surveyed our members on that a

Finance committee  That would be one of our key recommendations going forward. We feel there is growing uncertainty in the global economy, and even in our own business barometer we're seeing a little less confidence than we saw at the end of 2008-09. But having said that, it's not as bad it was. W

Finance committee  We were told to bring 12 English and 6 French. We called and asked. I do apologize.

Finance committee  We did specifically call and ask. Sorry about that. As we found from this report, freezing EI premiums was most important for both the general SME population as well as for these growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Also important, especially to the growth-oriented entrepreneurs, was

Finance committee  Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. CFIB is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization representing more than 108,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Canada who collectively employ more than one and a quarter million Canadians and account for $75 billion in