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House Hansard - 263

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 6, 2023 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 263 - Dec/6/23
Mr. Bryan May (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business and to the Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, Lib.)
  • Dec/6/23 7:20:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to respond to comments made earlier by the hon. member for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon regarding support for small businesses and restaurants. The government understands the important role that small businesses and restaurants play in communities from coast to coast to coast. Let me outline some of the measures the government is taking to support businesses dealing with inflation, which is affecting all Canadians. The government was there through the pandemic and provided direct support to businesses. We introduced wage and rent subsidies, advice and training to help businesses adapt to a digital marketplace, and loans to provide liquidity relief to ensure businesses' survival through the recovery period. The Canada emergency business account, or CEBA, provided $49 billion in support to nearly 900,000 businesses across the country. The program offered interest-free, partially forgivable loans of up to $60,000 to eligible small businesses. It kept their lights on and helped workers remain employed. We recently extended the deadline for partial forgiveness, and the CEBA term loans deadline was extended by one year, to December 31, 2026, to offer more time to businesses for their loan repayment. The government is also supporting small businesses by cutting credit card transaction fees and by cutting the small business tax rate from 11% to 9%, which is essential to businesses coming out of the pandemic. We have enhanced the Canadian small business financing program by increasing annual financing to small businesses by an estimated annual $560 million, helping businesses access liquidity for start-up costs and intangible assets. For businesses looking to bring their offerings to the digital marketplace, the Canada digital adoption program has supported enterprises of all sizes to digitize and reach more markets. The government is supporting businesses in their efforts to strive for even greater inclusivity, with the women entrepreneurship strategy, the Black entrepreneurship program, the 2SLGBTQI+ entrepreneurship program and targeted supports for indigenous businesses. The government will continue to work hard for Canadian small businesses and restaurants because we know that they are the backbone of our economy.
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Context: House Hansard - 263 - Dec/6/23
Mr. Bryan May
  • Dec/6/23 7:23:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am not surprised that the member opposite does not want to talk about the supports we provided to small businesses, because, frankly, I wonder whether they would have done so if they had been in power. We know that inflation is a global phenomenon that is a lingering result of the pandemic and exacerbated by worldwide events. It is making life harder for many businesses, particularly restaurants. The government has introduced measures to ensure that doing business in Canada is as easy as possible, including cutting taxes for growing small businesses, lowering their credit card fees by up to a quarter and helping them access more financing to grow their businesses. We will continue to support small businesses and restaurants across the country as we deal with the very real challenges of the global economy and inflation.
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