Finance committee  Absolutely. One of those areas is aimed at reducing emissions and making sure that we are competitive internationally, not just domestically. We did release a report earlier this month that goes in depth into what Canada could do to increase competitiveness. It goes beyond just

Finance committee  Absolutely. It has been something we've been pushing for a very long time. We are a very large country and there is a lot on the table. Our most recent data report shows that provinces primarily trade with just Ontario. There's lots of opportunity with all the other provinces and

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and fellow committee members, for having us here today. My name is Alla Drigola Birk and I am with the Canadian Chamber. My colleague Alex and I are pleased to be here to speak on behalf of the 200,000 businesses that the Canadian Chamber represents through

Industry committee  Okay. Thank you. These measures should include tax writeoffs for cybersecurity investment, waiving interest on all government-backed pandemic loans, including CEBA, BCAP and HASCAP, and encouraging domestic travel through new tax incentives on domestic tourism, travel and hospit

Industry committee  Thank you, Mark. Committee members, it's great to be here with you today. While there has understandably been much focus on the effects of long COVID on the health of Canadians, today I would like to discuss the impact that “financial long COVID” has had on Canadian businesse

Finance committee  I think you hit the nail on the head there. What I will say is that the wage subsidy program is making sure that employees can stay on the payroll. It's protecting jobs and communities, especially where, as Mark said, a lot of these businesses are the lifeblood of the community.

Finance committee  Absolutely I can take that question. One important thing we saw, which came out of the most recent Canadian survey on business conditions, was that businesses in the accommodation and food services, arts, entertainment and recreation sectors were the ones most likely to say that

Finance committee  I think it's an important question. One of the things I would say, as I think Ms. Potter mentioned in her comments, is that the tourism sector, for example, was the first hit, and it will be the last to recover. It's important that businesses in these sectors have the same abili

Finance committee  Thank you, Mark. Good afternoon, committee members. It's great to be back. Since early 2021, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has been calling for a more sector-specific approach to the government's business support programs. While the pandemic has touched all of us in a numbe

Finance committee  You bring up a great point, in that there are different realities across Canada. We are a very large geographic country, and there are different scenarios on the ground, depending on where you are. What we're trying to avoid when we call for a national reopening plan is to have

Finance committee  Thank you. You bring up an excellent point. We saw after the first lockdown that the wage subsidy program, for example, helped about 50% of businesses, which are using it hire back about half of their workforces. What we're seeing on the ground right now is very different from

Finance committee  Good afternoon, committee members. Thank you for inviting the Canadian Chamber here today. My name is Alla Drigola. I'm the Canadian Chamber's director of parliamentary affairs and SME policy. I'm joined by Patrick Gill, our senior director of tax and financial policy. The bud

Finance committee  That's a great question. We would have seen many more businesses struggling or closing and many more jobs lost. As Trevin said, from the beginning we commend the government for introducing these programs quickly and making them widely available to businesses. We've seen that mor

Finance committee  You bring up an excellent point about the timeline. A year ago, 2022 seemed like plenty of time to repay loans, but here we are a year later in the third wave. Small businesses are pretty maxed out in terms of debt capacity. Extending that repayment timeline is something that wou

Finance committee  Thank you, Trevin. Good afternoon. If the Canadian Chamber can leave committee members with just one message today to help businesses that are still struggling, it’s this: COVID-19 business support programs must remain in place for as long as businesses, particularly those in t