Finance committee  Yes. I understand than an MP wants to provide a constituent with an avenue that might work for them. They don't qualify for the wage subsidy, so the MP says to apply for the CEBA loan. The business owner then spends a week trying to sort through all the details of the CEBA loan p

Finance committee  Is that directed at me, Mr. Kelly?

Finance committee  Okay. Yes, we in fact did sign a letter with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the business council, the aboriginal business association of Canada and 60 others. Bob, I think you're on that letter too. Most business associations in the country signed a letter urging the fed

Finance committee  Yes, this has been a giant issue right from the very start of the pandemic. I will say I do believe that most members of government, most ministers, are quite sympathetic to this. All of them have said to me many times that they're working on it; they're thinking about it; and t

Finance committee  I certainly agree with that sentiment. As I said in my presentation, the average small firm has inherited $170,000 in COVID-related debt. We at CFIB are projecting 180,000 permanent business closures as a result of the pandemic, and that data was collected prior to the third wav

Finance committee  It is a very good program, largely designed on some previous programs that have existed in the past to try to get small businesses hiring again. Look, we predict at the CFIB that as the economy eventually reopens—Ontario is not making that easy—businesses will need to start to hi

Finance committee  Yes. I've been telling new business owners who have been contacting me in huge numbers to just stick with it, that the government is serious about this. The Prime Minister himself promised to do something for new business owners back in May of last year. A full calendar year la

Finance committee  My apologies for not being better prepared, Chair.

Finance committee  Just moments ago Ontario announced another two weeks of lockdown on top of another two weeks on top of another two weeks, so I was just blasting the Ford government seconds ago. Let me switch gears to the federal budget. There is a lot in the budget that we commend and endorse a

Finance committee  The same finance officials who hate this idea now hated this idea then and advised government not to go down this road. The Tories at least reviewed the legislation—to their credit—but didn't pass it when the Liberal MP Emmanuel Dubourg proposed this years ago. I'll remind you t

Finance committee  Thank you for those questions. I agree with you that there are better spots for us to pursue additional government revenue if that were the objective here. The lens with which we would encourage you to look at it, first and foremost, is to do what's fair. If groups like mine wer

Finance committee  I don't have data on the exact cost of this particular bill, but what I can tell you, just to echo the concerns that were shared earlier about the estimates the department put forward, is that some of the assumptions they made seemed crazy. They made assumptions that this would b

Finance committee  I don't know that we've asked that specific nuance to the question, but in the deck I shared with the clerk, which I believe was sent to you, on how business owners intend to exit their business.... It's on page 5 of the deck if you have it. The top answer in terms of to whom th

Finance committee  We have been talking for a long time about the tsunami of business transfers that is expected. I suppose the positive news is that a lot of business owners get to the age of normal retirement and then look at the business, look at the contributions they are making to society by k

Finance committee  I am just coming in behind that. Thank you so much for the question. I agree with your sentiment entirely. In 2017, CFIB got involved in a little dust-up with the federal government over some small business tax changes that were being proposed. We had a tiny argument with the pr