SoVote

Kevin Vuong

Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
Independent

Spadina—Fort York
Ontario
Voting Attendance: 62%
Expenses Last Quarter: $144,966.01

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 203 - May/31/23

May/31/23 10:12:46 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-35

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his remarks. I appreciated his economic and social analyses. Both he and I represent urban ridings, and, like him, I have heard the challenges around the labour shortage. There is no point in affordable, high-quality child care if there are no spots available. I would appreciate if you could expand on the labour workforce strategy, or perhaps the lack thereof.

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Context: House Hansard - 203 - May/31/23

Mr. Kevin Vuong (Spadina—Fort York, Ind.)

May/31/23 10:12:18 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-35

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his remarks. I appreciated his economic, financial and, frankly, social analyses. Both he and I represent urban ridings. One of the things I think we both face is—

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Context: House Hansard - 137 - Nov/29/22

Mr. Kevin Vuong (Spadina—Fort York, Ind.)

Nov/29/22 6:58:57 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, I want to begin by thanking my colleague for spending his evening with me on this very important matter. Last month, on October 24, I raised the issue of increasing EI premiums, particularly at a time when in Canada, Canadian workers and small business owners are just fighting to stay afloat. I know there has been some debate in this place back and forth on whether it is a direct payroll tax increase. We are going to put that aside because we know that even the Prime Minister, then the member of Parliament for Papineau in 2013, described it as such. What is important is that the definition does not matter. What matters is the impact that workers and small business owners from across my riding and the country are worried about. In this place, we have discussed the headwinds that workers are facing: rampant inflation, skyrocketing costs of living, the continued record setting of new highs by food banks, and so on. Therefore, instead I want to read into the record the other side of the equation, which is the state of our small businesses, which employ over 88% of all Canadian workers in the private labour force. I am afraid to report that it is grim. Last week, I met with people from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business who provided an update that, as I had feared, showed that Canadian small businesses continue to fight for survival. Nearly two-thirds have pandemic debt, with an average pandemic-related debt amount of $145,660. One-sixth of small business owners have considered permanently closing. Therefore, I want to put into context what that means for workers. If we use Statistics Canada's definition of a small business as being any business with fewer than 100 employees, and the most recent employment figures by Statistics Canada, it shows that almost 6.2 million Canadian workers are employed by small businesses. That means that if one-sixth of small business owners have considered permanently closing, over one million Canadian workers are at risk. Surely, then, considering the macro and microeconomic situation that our nation is in and the inflationary environment that workers and small business owners are facing, would my hon. colleague not agree that now is not the time to raise EI payroll taxes?

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Member of Parliament

Kevin Vuong