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  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  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  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  I wonder if you could repeat the question because the translation wasn't very clear.

Finance committee  I don't know if I can answer that question the way you're expecting me to answer it, but I do think you need to give people opportunities to invest, and make sure those opportunities are of low cost and that they understand what needs to be done. I think when it comes to CPP and

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  We have members on both sides of that particular question, of course. We have members who are both under the threshold and over the threshold, so our members are going to be supportive of a general corporate tax rate. We do have concerns that the small business tax rate is erodin

Government Operations committee  Thank you. 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 that collectively employ more than one and a quarter million Canadians and account for $7

Government Operations committee  I don't know where the translation was at, so I'll just go back to where I was. Finally, we would also suggest following the recommendation from the recently released report of the R and D review panel, namely, to consider not just a push approach to the project, where the firms