Small businesses in my Vancouver East riding are calling on your government to extend the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan repayment deadline, a measure which my New Democrat colleagues and I absolutely agree is a necessary measure.
The evidence is clear: according to your own government’s numbers, as of February 2023, fewer than 15% of all businesses who sought relief from CEBA loans had repaid the loan in full. The repayment date must be extended to ensure that small business owners have a fair chance to receive the benefits of the loan forgiveness and interest relief provisions of the loan.
Here in Vancouver East, and indeed across British Columbia, the health of small businesses is a primary determining factor in the health of our economy. 98% of all enterprises in BC are self-employed or small- to-medium businesses with fewer than fifty employees. One in ten people in our province are entrepreneurs. Small business is what business looks like in BC.
Canadian Press: NDP calls on federal government to allow open work permits for temporary workers
The committee’s report found that system creates conditions that can lead to exploitation and abuse.
NDP MPs Jenny Kwan and Matthew Green say the government needs to take this a step further by allowing all temporary workers access to open work permits in an effort to prevent abuse.
“The reality is, if you’re tied to one specific employer, you are really at their behest to do what they demand of you,” Kwan said.
“No matter what the abuse is, no matter if you’re faced with wage theft, with harassment, with violence, for women, with sexual harassment — you just have to live with it.”
She said the least the federal government can do to curb abuse in the temporary worker system is end the closed work permit system.