44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 26, 2023 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see you in the chair.
The Investment Canada Act was in need of a review, especially when one thinks of businesses in the context of COVID‑19, like our aerospace businesses. There is an issue. Are we protecting them enough? I do not think we talked enough about thresholds at committee. The government did not exactly show it was open to reviewing these thresholds.
At what point do we start an inquiry? I would like to hear what my colleague has to say. Should we have dug deeper into this to make sure we could protect our SMEs, which are the backbone of the Quebec and Canadian economy?
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- Oct/26/23 2:03:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the agriculture and agri-food sector is a major economic driver in Canada, employing 2.3 million people. This growing sector alone represents 7% of our GDP. Aliments Ouimet‑Cordon Bleu, a Montreal company known for its Clark and Paris Pâté brands, is a major player in this industry.
This year, Cordon Bleu is celebrating its 90th anniversary, while also expanding into the U.S. market and seeing strong growth nationally. In addition to this success, Cordon Bleu is racking up numerous honours. In the spring, it won Quebec SME of the year at the Mercuriades gala of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec.
I salute and congratulate the leaders of Cordon Bleu, who are here today, and I encourage all Canadians to keep supporting our dynamic agri-food businesses.
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- Oct/26/23 2:44:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we continue to be there for small businesses. We gave small businesses an extension from last year to this year. Because they asked for more help, we are offering them more flexibility when it comes to refinancing, more time to qualify for loan forgiveness, and a one-year extension of the repayment deadline for their Canada emergency business account loan.
I thank my hon. Bloc Québécois colleagues who continue to share excellent comments and ideas to support small business.
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- Oct/26/23 2:44:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what the member is talking about is 18 days during the holidays, but 250,000 businesses are going to go bankrupt. The government is not only unwilling to let them defer payments, but it is also unwilling to speak to them directly.
That is not what being financially responsible looks like. That is not what being flexible looks like. That is not what it means to deliver for Quebeckers. Our economy has the most SMEs. Our entrepreneurs are worried. Our people are the ones the Liberals are abandoning. No government in the world would let 250,000 businesses close without doing something.
When will the Liberals finally take action?
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- Oct/26/23 2:45:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleague that there are several thousand businesses and SMEs in Quebec.
We have been there for them. We are still there for them today and we will continue to be there for them tomorrow. The measures we have put in place are flexible, responsible measures that will help businesses pay back these loans.
We will continue to help Quebec businesses, as we do every day.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his impassioned speech.
I would like to know whether he would be open to creating another bill or at least finding some way to do more to protect our high-tech sectors as well as the head offices of our small businesses. What I would like to say to my colleague is that the Quebec economy in particular is made up largely of SMEs. The thresholds are not reviewed very often.
Does the member think it is important to try to protect our small businesses?
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Mr. Speaker, this is an excellent question as well, and I will tell members why.
The small and medium-sized businesses that the member references often get out of the discussion points, but they are also some of the start-ups, the other ones we are trying to incentivize to get to the next level, from small to medium to growing. Then what happens is they are gobbled up. I would be open to looking at that.
I think the member brings up an excellent point that gets really lost. We are spending a lot of time, money and energy in proponents to help venture capitalism and grow Canadian companies, companies in Quebec as well. The member brings up an excellent point. Sometimes we do those investments, as I mentioned at the beginning of my speech, and then they get gobbled up later and that is at a discount for those foreign nationals.
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