The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Support for Small Businesses

00:00:00.000 hello and welcome once again to the blueprints it's canada's conservative podcast i'm your host

00:00:13.400 jamie schmale member of parliament for halliburton corps the likes brock thank you once again for

00:00:17.420 joining us we've got an exciting show lined up for you and because we do we need your help

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00:00:43.740 ever moving liberal agenda and of course as always if you cannot listen or watch to the entire program

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00:01:00.880 liberal agenda amazing guest lined up for us today he's been on before he's pat kelly he's the member

00:01:06.880 of parliament for calgary rocky ridge he's also the shadow minister for small business and western

00:01:11.760 economic diversification thank you very much for joining us pat because we do have an important

00:01:16.720 topic which we're going to cover which is the lifeblood of canada lifeblood of any small town

00:01:21.620 any big city small business well that that's absolutely right jamie i mean small businesses

00:01:27.180 they are the lifeblood of our communities whether you live in a big city or a small town they are the

00:01:33.820 backbone of the canadian economy they are the the largest group of of employers and so many people

00:01:41.540 the the owners the employees and workers and and of course the the customers and and the members of

00:01:49.440 our community that rely on small businesses as providers of important goods and services that

00:01:54.040 that all all canadians uh need so uh you really can't overstate just how how important the small

00:02:00.460 business community is to the canadian economy and to just the very fabric of our communities

00:02:05.420 in the fight to protect small business we had an opposition day which is a event within the

00:02:12.620 parliamentary rules that allow opposition parties to talk about whatever they want we have so many

00:02:17.460 allocated to us and we decided as the official opposition through the leadership of our leader

00:02:24.080 erin o'toole to put forward a motion asking the trudeau government to postpone wage subsidy audits

00:02:29.800 and to provide additional flexibility in the canada emergency rent subsidy the canada emergency wage

00:02:35.180 subsidy and other support programs because let's let's face it during the lockdown small businesses

00:02:41.400 were the ones that were told to keep closed keep their employees home meanwhile the big box stores

00:02:46.600 increased their profits by the fact that they had a near monopoly on the marketplace given the fact that

00:02:52.180 their competition on main street was shut down and they as the big box stores were able to continue to

00:02:57.760 operate and really capture any consumer business coming through yeah that's that's right when

00:03:04.120 small businesses have borne the brunt of all governmental orders that have restricted people's activity

00:03:12.240 uh when we had a near complete shutdown back in the spring you know so many small businesses were

00:03:18.560 were under health orders to close their doors and so when when a business is ordered by the government to

00:03:26.080 close it's it's certainly not unreasonable to for these small businesses to expect uh help to expect some kind of

00:03:35.380 compensation or at least uh some kind of aid to get through the crisis and there the government

00:03:41.440 put out a number of aid measures our party uh did not um unduly delay these these measures we knew how

00:03:51.820 important it was to get support out to small businesses but along the way we had been there every

00:03:57.680 every step of the way pointing out many of the really serious problems that this government did

00:04:01.960 had had um we found out in september that many small businesses were uh becoming subject to audit for

00:04:10.220 the wage subsidy now in september they didn't even know these small businesses didn't even know if the

00:04:15.640 wage subsidy was going to continue the wage subsidy was coming to an end in uh in september and these

00:04:24.820 businesses are many of them were in an existential fight just to keep their doors open just to keep people

00:04:31.140 employed uh to be able to provide goods and services to the community and all of a sudden they had

00:04:36.380 the cra on their door um with asking for in some cases some fairly onerous uh information so as i we

00:04:44.720 didn't think this was right we didn't think those are the right timing look we we understand compliance

00:04:48.860 has to occur we need to ensure that only those businesses that are eligible receive the subsidy

00:04:54.020 but now is not the time when a business is just struggling to keep their doors open

00:04:58.660 to uh to have to to deal with an audit so we we we had a very reasonable motion one that we thought

00:05:03.840 that that all parliamentarians including the the governing liberals could could support we asked

00:05:08.960 that they postpone audits until after next year's tax season and that they ensure the wage subsidy the rent

00:05:18.660 subsidy and other programs become more flexible so that the businesses that they are targeted toward

00:05:25.000 can actually receive them um very disappointing that that the liberals did not support this motion

00:05:33.260 uh but um you know they're not calling the shots in a minority parliament and uh the all the other

00:05:39.480 opposition parties sided with uh the conservatives and and and voted to uh to support our motion so we

00:05:45.140 have we have called upon and parliament has now spoken the house of commons has passed a motion

00:05:50.240 to um have the cra postpone these audits and um we'll we'll have to monitor this very carefully to

00:05:59.640 see if the government is um is going to respect the will of parliament and follow through on

00:06:06.460 parliament's will and postpone these compliance audits you can imagine what small businesses have to go

00:06:13.220 through pre-pandemic now we're in the middle of this pandemic the challenges a small business faces

00:06:20.020 on a daily basis trying to learn what their customers want innovate continue to stay ahead of

00:06:26.360 the curve in and ensure that there's enough money coming in that you're able to keep your doors open

00:06:32.500 now the government said well if you receive the these benefits we're going to potentially sick a cra 0.74

00:06:39.220 auditor on you to make sure you you played by the rules and if you're a restaurant then you just found

00:06:44.080 out also that they're going to ban single-use plastics a lot of which you've been using for takeout

00:06:49.620 which you've been able to keep your restaurant alive with so it's one punch after another with this

00:06:55.780 liberal government well yeah and this all don't forget this all comes on the heels of in 2017 uh when

00:07:01.980 they really declared war on small business and called them tax cheaters and uh dropped a huge draconian

00:07:08.100 set of of new uh tax um uh implications on small businesses so this this government has a a horrific

00:07:16.680 track record when it comes to small business and a lot of the small business owners that i've talked

00:07:21.540 to um you know they just want respect i mean they they from their government that that's maybe the

00:07:26.740 most basic thing that they're looking for or are a little bit of recognition for what they they do to

00:07:32.120 the community and not just uh seen as a as a as a tax target but um with these audits i mean

00:07:39.020 we are as a as a as conservatives we believe in compliance and the rule of law and ensuring that

00:07:47.560 that benefits go where they are supposed to go but now isn't the time when you in september when

00:07:55.100 these businesses don't even know if they're going to keep getting the wage subsidy uh the rent subsidy

00:07:59.580 being so badly screwed up that that 90 percent of small businesses couldn't access it um when when

00:08:05.680 these businesses don't know if they're going to make it through to the into to the end of uh december

00:08:10.400 they don't need an auditor uh in their office that can wait until after the following uh next year's

00:08:15.540 tax season where some of the preparation work will will will take place as scheduled anyway

00:08:20.380 as you mentioned about 90 percent of small businesses were not able to access the wage subsidy program

00:08:27.560 so the liberals finally after pressure from the opposition business advocacy groups and many others

00:08:35.200 probably within their own backbench had a backlash of concern about this program they finally

00:08:40.640 rewrote it and we were able to deal with some legislation don't forget they prorogued parliament

00:08:46.220 because the issue was so important for them they couldn't deal with it for a few more weeks

00:08:49.760 now there's even more problems with the rent program yeah that's it's the rent program that uh that was

00:08:55.840 that was a really uh badly executed uh program back going back to the spring and and uh you know back in in

00:09:03.420 april and and may uh conservatives and other um other uh and other opposition right and as you said

00:09:10.640 even even i'm sure the liberal back benches were saying look this program is a failure it is not it was

00:09:16.460 not well designed it wasn't designed so that small businesses could access it we've been calling upon them

00:09:21.740 for months and months and months saying look you if you're going to have a rent commercial rent subsidy

00:09:27.900 program it has to be run through the small business itself the small business owner needs to be the

00:09:35.960 one who can apply for it so they they tabled a bill last monday moved it on wednesday uh with enormous

00:09:46.400 pressure to run run this through quickly um without being able to go undergo the proper scrutiny that a

00:09:52.960 bill would go and we realized this bill was another screwed up bill uh they are the the the businesses

00:10:02.120 that need this the most are going to again have difficulty accessing it uh because the the businesses

00:10:09.360 that have not paid their their rent while waiting for this plan not been able to pay the rent while

00:10:17.260 waiting for this program to to exist will still not be able to access it it's it's all done after the

00:10:22.960 fact and um the the minister recognized that they had made this mistake but procedurally wasn't able

00:10:28.800 to to remedy it so so this bill is now um out of the hands of the house of commons and it's going to

00:10:35.700 have to come back and maybe get amended at the senate i don't know uh what what even procedurally

00:10:39.760 they can do to fix this the government recognizes it needs to be fixed but again it's like they're making

00:10:45.020 it up as they go along they prorogued the house in august you would have thought that they could

00:10:50.180 come into september prepared with legislation to address problems that they know exist and that

00:10:57.240 they have publicly acknowledged um and yet here we are getting into mid-november and small businesses

00:11:05.360 still don't know when they can apply for the rent subsidy and uh and many still have questions too

00:11:11.140 about uh how the wage subsidy is going to end up working out so um it's just really i i don't see an

00:11:18.820 excuse for it uh it really does seem like uh like everything's being made up on the fly and

00:11:24.360 we understand things are moving very quickly with uh the the um the coronavirus crisis but

00:11:30.560 uh they had months to get this right and they failed to do so we were talking off air about the

00:11:38.220 challenges small businesses were going through and and the side effects and and you you represent a

00:11:43.800 riding in calgary we've seen numerous reports in toronto and other big cities that a lot of the

00:11:49.940 downtown core even ottawa for example uh with the people being told to stay home and lock down because

00:11:55.380 of course we're we're in the pandemic but it's the small businesses the restaurants the retail stores

00:12:00.160 kind of around the office towers that have seen a massive reduction in business and they're just

00:12:05.560 barely hanging on not to mention everyone else in small town ontario or whether in the suburbs

00:12:11.300 i think every small business owner is is going through these series of challenges and and and

00:12:17.260 some some clarity would be nice but also the fact that the the the ripple effect that these small

00:12:23.400 businesses have if they're not able to stay open or keep those people employed it's the jobs the

00:12:28.140 opportunity the wealth in our communities and that the spinoff because if if businesses start to shut

00:12:33.820 down it's not just that business it's probably one another one three four that are all tied into

00:12:40.920 another business or make up a large portion that could take a hit and then you have that cascading

00:12:46.340 constriction on the on the economy because these businesses start to to to close and shutter

00:12:51.920 yeah it's i mean the the restaurant industry is is so tremendously hit by this uh restaurants canada

00:13:00.060 estimates that up to 60 percent of restaurants may fail by the end of the year um we as we're talking

00:13:06.460 about off air in in my city um the the downtown um had been the the process of emptying out downtown

00:13:14.640 calvary uh began well before the the the pandemic hit with the uh the tremendous damage that's been

00:13:21.560 done to the uh the oil and gas industry where where literally thousands of downtown many thousands of

00:13:27.000 downtown office workers had lost their jobs even before uh covid uh happened but uh for the for the

00:13:33.940 businesses struggling to uh to to survive uh that really had an uncertain future even before covid

00:13:40.980 uh all the uncertainty around this and the uh the um uncertainty around the the future and unfolding

00:13:47.840 of aid programs it just adds to that anxiety it adds to that uncertainty uh which which comes back to

00:13:55.020 the issue of audit um just how much stress can a small business operator take right now um small

00:14:02.680 businesses uh are not like big businesses when it comes to audit compliance a small business doesn't

00:14:10.580 have a team of lawyers and accountants on staff whose regular job every day year in and year out is

00:14:20.140 dealing with compliance on a full-time basis when a small business who only has a small business

00:14:26.000 operator with only a handful of employees gets a letter from cra you know that ruins your whole day

00:14:32.060 um typically the letter might might have a demand for documents with a very tight time frame on it

00:14:40.300 and um you know when you're just trying to survive right now that added stress is something that can

00:14:48.620 wait until we at least get through next year's tax season so pat kelly uh any final words we are running

00:14:57.340 out of time any any final words you'd like to pass along we do appreciate the work you're doing

00:15:01.240 fighting for small business because they they are the lifeblood of the canadian economy i don't care

00:15:05.800 what kind of business you own uh you are creating jobs opportunity and wealth in our communities yeah i just

00:15:12.360 want to uh to to pay tribute to the the small businesses across canada uh and and you know they're

00:15:20.260 there we're not without hope i attended an opening of a small business uh just this uh a few just this

00:15:26.580 past weekend and boy it takes tremendous courage to uh to open a business at any time and uh i'm just

00:15:33.300 i'm it's it's fantastic to see that that there are still uh entrepreneurs there are people that have a

00:15:41.480 dream or an idea that they are prepared uh with all the inherent risk and uncertainty to to just go out and

00:15:48.520 and try and chase it so to uh our small businesses and entrepreneurs uh my best to all of you and and

00:15:55.480 what are you hearing also i i know we're going to try to close this out here but what what are you also

00:15:59.780 hearing elsewhere when you're talking to small business owners when you're talking about potential

00:16:03.760 consumers the the the idea that in the middle of a pandemic you would increase taxes that happened

00:16:10.560 back in the summer when the carbon tax went up now we're hearing uh chatter whether or not it is rumor

00:16:16.600 or otherwise that there might be more increases in taxes to pay for the never-ending government

00:16:22.660 spending that we seem to have coming out ottawa and we've yet to see a budget we have yet to see

00:16:27.620 a fiscal update we have yet to get the information we need as the opposition because parliamentarians

00:16:33.200 that's our job is to scrutinize the government uh we are not getting the information we need um so

00:16:39.380 with small businesses trying to figure out are we going to face a luxury tax are we going to face a

00:16:43.780 wealth tax what is going on um we need to ensure that there's confidence within the marketplace within

00:16:49.440 the business community yeah well the restaurant industry which which we know is really hard hit

00:16:54.260 they also got the uh the excise escalator where uh the uh tax on uh beer wine and spirits goes up

00:17:01.140 automatically even without a vote in parliament and uh we've jamie you and i have been opposed to this

00:17:06.240 uh this this tax that that allows taxes to go up even without parliament's vote um you know i think

00:17:13.340 the least they could do is back off on the escalator tax on on that uh to to help our our our restaurant 0.99

00:17:18.920 sector uh but uh yes who knows what uh what tax grab is next there is anxiety around uh around taxes

00:17:27.140 around public debt and around public um finances i mean we know in the in the short term that businesses

00:17:34.560 need support and when they've been ordered to close their doors by the government it's not unreasonable

00:17:39.620 for them to expect support but they need to see a plan forward they need to see this government

00:17:45.060 table a plan for economic recovery that involves a full employment economy not merely a a benefit

00:17:51.960 driven economy it is also the day before remembrance day i'd like to thank all those who have served

00:17:57.280 in uniform and peacetime they're in conflict at home or abroad thank you very much for your service i

00:18:02.500 don't know if pat you want to say a quick uh quick word before before we leave just that with with

00:18:08.620 tomorrow being remembrance day uh there won't be large public gatherings but it is still important

00:18:13.800 that we uh engage in the act of remembrance and and share that with uh with our our those close to

00:18:20.140 us um there are many events i know that are going to be um in fact i i was just taping one uh earlier

00:18:27.140 this morning that's going to air tomorrow uh in calvary the battery uh they're going to be streaming

00:18:31.300 the battery park uh remembrance day ceremony so uh maybe maybe check out a a ceremony online

00:18:37.900 and um and just take a moment of private reflection to uh to give remembrance to those that uh that uh

00:18:46.640 risked and gave up their in some cases gave up their lives in defense of our values in canada

00:18:52.440 you're absolutely right if you can't catch it live which uh many are encouraging you not to many

00:18:57.980 communities please check it out virtually or in another uh platform as pat just mentioned because

00:19:03.140 it is important we continue to remember those valuable sacrifices pat kelly member of parliament

00:19:07.520 for calgary rocket ridge is also the shadow minister for small business and western economic

00:19:12.420 development thank you very much for your time you are a good friend of the show we appreciate you

00:19:16.060 coming on yet again to to help fight for our small businesses always a pleasure thanks jimmy and

00:19:22.260 remember if you can't watch the whole thing now you can download it and watch it later listen to it

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00:19:39.180 new content coming up next tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time please join us then we'll have a new guest with

00:19:46.160 a new topic something that will be very important to you as they all are and something to show that

00:19:51.160 we are able to penetrate through the mainstream media message and of course remember low taxes less

00:19:57.420 government more freedom that's the blueprint thanks for joining us

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The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - November 10, 2020

Support for Small Businesses

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