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House Hansard - 263

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 6, 2023 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 263 - Dec/6/23
Mr. Brad Vis (Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, CPC)
  • Dec/6/23 7:16:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, small businesses are struggling to survive and entrepreneurship has fallen off a cliff. The minister and the government love to claim that they have the backs of small businesses, yet they have ignored their concerns and the issues they face time after time. According to the most recent data from the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, total business insolvencies increased by 23.5% month over month from September to October 2023, and for the 12-month period ending in October, the increase was 39.9% year over year. The recent Statistics Canada survey on small business conditions, fourth quarter 2023, revealed that the majority of businesses, that is 73.7%, expect to face cost-related obstacles over the next three months. Rising inflation was the most commonly expected obstacle, followed by rising input costs, interest rates and debt costs. Another StatsCan report on GDP, income and expenditures for the third quarter of 2023 found that exports of goods and services fell 1.3%. Inventories accumulated at the slowest pace in two years with the manufacturing industry recording a withdrawal after six consecutive quarters of accumulations. Fewer businesses are investing in engineering structures in the wake of the completion of the Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline in my province. In its business barometer for November 2023, the CFIB reported that business confidence remains low. The 12-month small business confidence index dropped another 1.5 points to 45.6, a third consecutive decrease in optimism. The Conference Board of Canada paints a similar picture. Its index of business confidence dropped by another percentage point in the third quarter, bringing the index to 33.9 points below its latest peak in 2021. This was driven by a 7.7% decline in businesses that think now is not a good time to expand. The CFIB also published a report in November on labour shortages, highlighting that 53% of Canadian small business owners report that labour shortages are preventing them from expanding their business. Canadian business owners have been clear: Some of the biggest challenges they face right now relate to inflation, red tape and repeated tax hikes. Those are all challenges imposed on them by the government. When I asked the minister whether her government would stop its punishing tax hikes and inflationary spending, her response was to brag about more spending. Hearing all of these alarming trends for small businesses, the minister will have to excuse me for not jumping on her bandwagon of empty announcements, flashy photo ops and cheerleading the government's reckless spending that have failed to address the real challenges faced by small businesses across our country. I will give the minister another chance this evening. Will her government commit to stop raising taxes on small businesses and bring spending under control to address inflation?
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