Finance committee  I hear what you're saying. I don't pretend that all small business owners feel that way. That's why you don't have 100% on all the different data points that we have. There are business owners who disagree and believe the CPP should be expanded. However, as an organization for th

Finance committee  I don't know the answer to that.

Finance committee  I don't know.

Finance committee  I'm not as informed as you are about other areas of the world and the depth of their pension programs. I know, as I explained earlier, that for our members $11,000 for the average business is quite a bit of money. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but if your margins are 3% or

Finance committee  I'm sorry....

Finance committee  To a business owner, if you have to pay it and you don't have a choice, it's usually a tax.

Finance committee  The cost in terms of...?

Finance committee  It could be, I suppose, if the federal government had to raise additional taxes to then pay for CPP.

Finance committee  I won't speak to the municipal level, but federally CPP is funded, as it sits right now. If that changes five years from now, if the economy for some reason doesn't continue to stabilize, at least in growth.... That's why I introduced my presentation with the chart about employ

Finance committee  As I showed in my slides, we had some very strange behaviour this past month in the barometer, in which our numbers are crossing. It is unusual. We haven't seen this in a number of years. We're hoping it's a blip. If it's not, we'll know in the end of this month's barometer. Then

Finance committee  I can certainly come back to the committee with a bit more research. I know that we offer group RSPs that tend to be quite popular and other savings mechanisms through employee bonuses or additional income at the end of the year. I'd have to do a bit more research. That's not a p

Finance committee  Briefly, as I've mentioned repeatedly, Canadians and small business owners are for retirement savings. In the nineties, when CPP needed to have increased premiums with no additional benefits, when the plan wasn't doing as well as it was now, our members voted to increase it. They

Finance committee  I'll use the average rate for our members, which is 11%, as an example. Think of a small corner store or convenience store in your region. For these businesses, a yearly increase of $11,000 a year is a lot of money. You mentioned the carbon tax. We don't know the details of that

Finance committee  I will let my members answer that question, since 46% of them said that an increase, even if it involved an eventual increase in benefits, would reduce investments in their businesses. After taking into account the impact on salaries and the number of employees who work in their

Finance committee  Thank you.