Status of Women committee  One thing I've appreciated throughout the pandemic is that this has been unprecedented for everybody and for governments too. I do want to give some credit to the government for introducing many different programs and for being open to feedback and making changes to those program

Status of Women committee  I really don't mean to be repetitive, but the scope of this pandemic is big, so I feel that in many ways, to make sure we're getting everybody into the programs that currently exist, we need to look at the programs themselves and make sure they're broad enough and inclusive enoug

Status of Women committee  I'll start. I think the most important thing on rent subsidy is to get it out. It's still not available. We understand it's still going through the Senate this week. Hopefully, once it gets passed, hopefully this week, it will be quickly launched thereafter. December 1 is comi

Status of Women committee  One question we have outstanding with the government right now is whether the rent subsidy will apply, at least partially, to home-based businesses. Much in the same way that you can deduct expenses for home-based businesses from your income taxes, is there a way that part of the

Status of Women committee  It is a big question. It's a tough one to answer in regard to everything. The biggest worries for women entrepreneurs are debt, business cash flow, stress and the worry that their consumers will not come back. Find ways to start to address those and recognize that the programs t

Status of Women committee  Yes. Pharmacare is interesting. A lot of small business owners don't have coverage for themselves because they can't afford it or for whatever reason. They'd love to offer it to their employees, but when you're microsized, it can be very difficult to find health care and pharmaca

Status of Women committee  I'll respond quickly to say that child care is always going to be an issue for female entrepreneurs. It's something we also saw in a greater degree during the pandemic, given that kids were out of school at the beginning of it. That really highlighted a bit of that issue. Whethe

Status of Women committee  I would say that first and foremost, it's about getting them through this current issue, the current pandemic. Essentially, making adjustments to some of the COVID relief programs is going to be important in order for them to make it through. First you have to deal with your imme

Status of Women committee  First and foremost, when it comes to the more rural businesses, this pandemic has hit everybody very hard. In the rural ridings or rural areas of the country, I think it has been slightly less of an issue only because the small businesses in those communities are more well known.

Status of Women committee  Well, I don't have data specifically for women entrepreneurs, but I do have data more generally in regard to the impacts of the pandemic. We're starting to update that data right now. This is back from July. We're going to be updating it again in a couple of weeks. We have esti

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I'll be focusing my remarks on the impacts of COVID-19 on female entrepreneurs. I'll be walking you through a slide deck that I hope you all have in front of you. Right away, I want to talk a bit about CFIB. It's a not-for-profit m

International Trade committee  In order to address issues for smaller companies, that's the more important area to tackle. That can be anything like standards that are imposed by certain sectors or certain governments. It can also include—and this is what doesn't get included in this agreement—the subnational

International Trade committee  I think it's partly from sector to sector. Obviously, as an organization that is multisectoral—we represent businesses of all different types—as I tried to point out, there are elements of CUSMA that also have concerns for us in regard to some of the sectors, and there are others

International Trade committee  Overall, again, it's opportunity. Obviously, as mentioned in the presentation that we made, the United States is the most important country to trade with. When we looked at the feedback from our members as we went through the NAFTA negotiation process in terms of the things that

International Trade committee  No, I don't think so. Again, I think they're vaguely aware that this is coming, and the sooner it happens, the better.