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Hon. Arif Virani

Member of Parliament
Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada
Liberal

Parkdale—High Park
Ontario
Voting Attendance: 64%
Expenses Last Quarter: $120,537.19

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Mr. Arif Virani (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Lib.)

Jun/9/23 11:56:15 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what needs to be pointed out with respect to the question asked by the member opposite is that SMEs could apply for a maximum of $60,000. Repayment of two-thirds of the loan by the deadline results in loan forgiveness of one-third. We are always here to listen to SMEs' concerns. That is why, as I mentioned, we have just cut credit card transaction fees for SMEs here in Canada.

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Context: House Hansard - 210 - Jun/9/23

Mr. Arif Virani (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Lib.)

Jun/9/23 11:54:54 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from the Bloc Québécois member because it underscores the importance of small businesses here in Canada. We have always been there to help and support SMEs. We lowered taxes from 11% to 9%. The opposition voted against that measure. We were there to provide support during the pandemic with the loans the member across the way mentioned. What we just did with the budget is lower credit card transaction fees for SMEs. Again, the opposition voted against that.

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Context: House Hansard - 130 - Nov/18/22

Mr. Arif Virani (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Lib.)

Nov/18/22 10:29:33 a.m.
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Re: Bill C-32

Madam Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate on Bill C-32, the fall economic statement and its implementation. It is critical to address this kind of issue. It is critical to the constituents I represent in Parkdale—High Park in terms of the cost of living crisis that so many Canadians are facing and in terms of addressing affordability. I am happy to highlight, in the context of this intervention, what we are doing and what we are proposing to do as a government. Let me start with students. I feel that I am not that far removed from my student years, although it has been almost 30 years. I remember those days fondly. What I did not have to deal with then that students have to deal with now is really crippling debt with skyrocketing tuition rates and the debt loads that young people are taking on. We want people to be considering post-secondary education. We want them to be advancing themselves and their careers through higher education. During COVID we implemented a new relaxation on the interest being charged on federal student loans. With the fall economic statement, we are entrenching permanently the position that we took during COVID on a go-forward basis to eliminate interest on the federal portion of student loans. The caveat here is that not every province is following suit with their provincial counterparts. As a proud representative from Toronto, I urge the provincial government in Ontario to follow suit as six other provinces have. This would ensure that the provincial portion in my native province also eliminates interest so that we can render more fairness for these young people. The next subject area I will to turn to is housing. Housing is something we hear about all the time and rightfully so. Housing has become difficult in terms of attaining housing on a purchase model for people who would like to own property. It has become difficult for people who want to rent in this country. It is difficult on a number of fronts. Colleagues know the actions we have taken as a government, but more needs to be done. The national housing strategy was an important initial step in 2017. We have supplemented that with continuing contributions to the housing portfolio. What we are doing in this fall economic statement is fourfold. The first thing we are doing is ensuring that a new tax-free first homes savings account is permitted to be opened. This will operate much like a TFSA. This would allow a young person or a young couple to save as much as $40,000 in savings, tax free, to contribute to the purchase of that first home. That is an important step. A few years ago, we also implemented something called the first-time homebuyers' tax credit. The fall economic statement proposes to double that amount to reflect the fact that housing prices have gone up. We appreciate that people need more of a credit to take that initial step to purchase their first home.

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Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada

Hon. Arif Virani