Brad Vis

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition concerning Canada student grant eligibility for registered massage therapy students in British Columbia. The petitioners are concerned that restricting eligibility would make it more difficult for students to access training for an in-demand health care profession. At a time when British Columbians need more RMTs, the petitioners do not want new financial barriers to be put in the way of students pursuing this regulated health care profession. The petitioners are calling on the government to maintain Canada student grant eligibility for provincially regulated RMT programs in British Columbia.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition from the communities of Abbotsford, Chilliwack—Hope, Merritt and Princeton calling for stronger, more resilient infrastructure along Canada's critical trade corridors in British Columbia. The devastating floods of 2021 showed how important these routes are to our communities and to our national economy. They are essential for public safety, food security and emergency response. The petitioners are calling on the government to recognize the West Coast Corridor Resiliency Partnership as a strategic partner and to support long-term investments in transportation, flood mitigation and critical infrastructure necessary to move goods in our country. They are asking for a commitment for long-term investments that strengthen our infrastructure to allow Canada to trade.

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister of Finance for agreeing to bring forward Bill C-38. Thanks to relentless pressure from the Conservatives, we have some taxation relief today. The finance minister outlined a series of other measures related to affordability. We should note in the House of Commons today that the government is doing better on its finances because of the high price of oil. Much of that oil actually flows through my riding; 37% of all oil from the Trans Mountain pipeline goes right through the Sumas Prairie where we had the big flood in 2021. That area is very vulnerable. In the MOU signed between the federal government and the Province of B.C. this summer, they committed to providing $20 million for funding the study, but there was no final commitment to put in the pump station to protect the most agriculturally significant lands in the province, the Trans Mountain pipeline and where they wanted to build a new pipeline. Would the finance minister be able to outline to the House whether the government will fund a new pump station to protect future investments in the Trans Mountain pipeline corridor, British Columbia's most significant agricultural lands and—

Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the hard-working small business owners in Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford and across Canada. This is a group of Canadians that is facing more pressure than the average person. They are faced with the same stressors, such as food prices that are making it difficult to feed their families and skyrocketing rent that is consuming more of their earnings, while they are also trying to keep their businesses afloat. It is clear the government agrees with Conservatives that Canadians and small business owners cannot afford an increase in gas prices anytime soon. This is a good thing because we tried to do this a few months ago and it was rejected by the government at that time. The Liberals' failure to deliver the economic certainty they promised has piled even more uncertainty onto small businesses, and Canadians across the board are paying the price right now. When businesses pay more to make, move and sell the things people need, these costs show up in the prices consumers pay. This is at a time when 49% of people, almost half of working Canadians, feel less financially secure than they did a year ago. Any relief for working people is good news, but a modest extension of the Liberals' current plan will not be enough for Canadians already squeezed by higher costs. I have risen many times in this chamber since the last election, quoting studies and statistics reflecting the abysmal state of small businesses and the health of small businesses in our country. Let me give a few more examples. In April, a record high of 74% of small business owners reported fuel as an input cost causing difficulties. Nationally, seven in 10 businesses impacted by fuel cost pressures report absorbing increases through lower profits, half have increased prices charged to customers, one-third have delayed planned investments and close to one in five has cancelled investments altogether. Six in 10 small businesses cite fuel costs as one of the biggest challenges, ahead of taxes, labour and economic uncertainty. The concerns with this tax are not in isolation. They are spurred on by the affordability crisis and the trade war with the United States. Canadians have enough on their plate. A hastily reintroduced fuel tax before the end of the trade war will only harm already struggling small businesses and the people who buy from them. This is particularly true in rural communities, such as the one I represent. For example, recent changes by the Canada Border Services Agency at the Abbotsford-Huntingdon crossing are creating serious challenges for local businesses. After 8 p.m., drivers must now commute to alternate crossings, one 20 kilometres away and the other almost 40 kilometres away. Companies facing this choice certainly cannot afford to pay a reinstated excise taxes on that extra 20 to 40 kilometres next year. Why would the Liberals continue to entertain half measures when keeping fuel taxes low has proven to provide the relief Canadians need? The Business Council of British Columbia is in Ottawa this week, meeting with MPs and reinforcing a simple message, which is that we need real regulatory reform, and right now, the government is not doing enough to get rid of red tape. Under the leadership of the government, Canada, in many respects, has become hostile toward entrepreneurs. Statistics Canada documented the impacts of a 37% rise in federal regulatory restrictions between 2006 and 2021. This surge was directly associated with a 1.7 percentage point decline in GDP growth, alongside drops in business investment, productivity, employment, and the rate of new business formation. In 2000, self-employment in Canada accounted for roughly 16.1% of total employment. By 2025, that share had fallen to 12.9%, the lowest in decades. A report from the Montreal Economic Institute notes, “The decline in entrepreneurship became more pronounced after 2018, coinciding with a series of federal tax changes that raised costs and showed hostility toward entrepreneurs.” As a result of this economic hostility created by the Liberals, Canada is losing talent and capital to the United States, with 40% of established businesses considering leaving Canada, and too many of our brightest graduates leaving even before they get started. According to a TD Economics report, “graduates in mathematics, computer science, and engineering are less likely to remain in Canada than non STEM graduates, even among Canadian citizens. Doctoral [students] and graduates from highly ranked universities have the lowest retention rates, particularly in the first five years after graduation.” University of Waterloo data shows “that the highest-performing students are the most likely to leave Canada after graduation.” Among Canadian-born students, exit rates at the top of the skill distribution are roughly double those at the bottom. It is fundamental that a new grad sees Canada as more advantageous from both a tax regulatory perspective and a competitiveness perspective to start a business here or to work for a Canadian business, but over decades of federal mismanagement, we have moved away from that. At a time when Canadian businesses are already facing tariffs and uncertainty accessing U.S. markets, the last thing they need is higher domestic input costs. New estimates reveal that 53,112 businesses are directly impacted by either U.S. tariffs, Canadian countertariffs or, in some cases, both. Small businesses across Canada will bear the brunt of unjustified American tariffs, with 77% of affected exporters expecting revenue losses. While the Government of Canada responds with countervailing tariffs, it must learn from the challenges that businesses faced during previous rounds of retaliatory action. Many small businesses did not receive the support needed under earlier measures due to complicated administrative processes. The regional tariff response initiative saw an extremely low uptake, with fewer than 1% of small businesses applying and four in five being unaware that the program existed. As a result, firms most affected by tariffs and countertariffs were left without access to support. According to the CFIB, the most recently announced federal tariff support programs continued “to exclude about half of the small business community”. Earlier this month, on a call with members of Parliament—

Mr. Speaker, the last key point I would like to make with respect to the state of small business in Canada today comes from the president of PacifiCan, who, on a call with members of Parliament in British Columbia earlier this summer, stated that her department was not meeting the outlined time frame for delivering tariff rebates to the companies that had applied for those funds. As the government consistently states, we are in an economic war with the United States. I would hope that a key measure announced to support Canadian businesses during this time would be treated with more severity than we have seen. I would encourage the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, who has responsibility for PacifiCan, to look closely at those programs and do better. All of us in the House have to stand up for Canada. We need to stand up for Canada because our businesses are suffering. There is going to be a lot of new legislation put forward, and I implore the government to consider small businesses. The information coming from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is not good. The loss of confidence and the departure of our brightest young Canadians who feel they have a better future in the United States is not the Canadian way. I know that collectively, in the House, we do not want to see that happen, but it will take hard work and more collaboration by the government, and listening to Conservative ideas, to improve that competitiveness and to bring in those structural reforms that are needed so young people, when they graduate from university, say that their best opportunity in life is to start a business in Canada. I believe we can get there. I will be focusing in this session, with the mandate that I have been given, on pointing out where the government is not doing enough to support our entrepreneurs. Let us work together. Let us build Canada up. Let us stand up for our entrepreneurs and do better for the people who pay our salaries, who pay taxes and who do not demand a lot and often give more.

Mr. Speaker, just today, the B.C. business council and, I believe, the Manitoba business council and the Alberta and Saskatchewan business councils were in Ottawa. They spoke about the need to do more for our small businesses to reduce the regulatory burden. With respect to the programs outlined by the member for Winnipeg North, the Red Seal trades program announced by the government, for some reason, excluded aviation. That is an area where we could work together, to ensure that those dollars from ESDC go to the aviation sector, which I know is very important in his riding, as it is in mine. There are common-sense things we are not doing today that we have to do for small businesses: regulatory reform and improving programs to meet the actual needs.

Mr. Speaker, I agree that many of the measures being put in by the Liberals right now are actually Conservative ideas, and I am glad to see some of those things being adopted, because they will make some improvements. What is happening right now is that the government is in a process of erasing the most socialist policies of Justin Trudeau, and I am glad to see that erasure take place, but we have seen a lot of damage. I will conclude by noting that we need more emphasis by the government on maintaining market access in the United States. Those business councils, the ones from Manitoba, talked about the existing trade relationships with the United States that need to be upheld. We need to see more from the government on that. That is where small businesses do business. We have to support them.

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely support Bill C-38, and I will be voting in favour of it. I will note that when we tried to do the same thing last spring, the government rejected our proposal. I am glad that its members have listened to their voters and to Canadians, understanding that what the Conservatives were proposing was a positive step forward to support our businesses. My only hope is that the government extends this in perpetuity. I am going to repeat this. Small businesses right now need to maintain market access to the United States. That is where the majority of our exports go. I have worked at Global Affairs, and even though I agree with expanding global markets, we cannot forgo the existing economic relationships that underpin the entirety of the Canadian economy.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the evening. Before I begin my comments, I will note that we have had a debate throughout the entire day on Bill C-38. Many of the things I want to say that relate to my question from June were said during the debate on Bill C-38 as well. The point I would like to make, and I hope the government side can hear it, is that even though the Prime Minister has commenced a process to erase the legacy of Justin Trudeau, to move away from his most disastrous policies, structural reforms are still needed to ensure that small businesses, the businesses that pay the majority of taxes in Canada, are made whole. We are going to see that through taxation and regulatory reform on a major scale, but we have not seen that yet. I encourage the government to heed the words that small businesses, the ones with eight to 10 employees, still need market access to the United States. These are 50-year-old relationships that are in jeopardy right now. Today, business leaders from across western Canada came to Parliament. I will acknowledge that they are happy with Bill C-39, the Liberals' big, beautiful bill. They are happy about the attack the Liberals are going to make on organized labour, even though the Conservatives are still debating it and trying to figure it out. However, they have stressed the need for regulatory reform and measures that are going to help small businesses in western Canada. In Manitoba, for example, 50% of exports go to the United States. It is higher in a lot of other provinces. We have to take that relationship seriously. In my question back in June, I highlighted that Canada has lost 100,000 entrepreneurs over the last two decades, and there has been a 19% increase in business exits since 2019. That is not acceptable. Right now, we are facing major challenges, but the government can do a couple of things better. It can look at the RTRI. Very few businesses understood what that program was, and the Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada was around nine months late in delivering it based on the timelines he stated when the program was announced. If the Liberals say we are at economic war, why would they make businesses wait nine months for a program they said they would deliver in three months? That is simply not acceptable. We need confidence that the public service, the ministers and the parliamentary secretaries are going to step up, hold their public servants to a higher standard, do things in their power and actually move at the speeds they said they would in the last election. So far, we have not seen that. It has to change. We have to stand up for Canada. The government needs to stand up for Canada, and it is not doing that in a responsible way. The final statistic I will mention is that according to a TD Economics report, graduates in mathematics, computer science and engineering are less likely to remain in Canada than non-STEM graduates. The University of Waterloo shows that the highest performing students are the most likely to leave Canada after graduation. Those are the entrepreneurs starting businesses. They are going to the United States to do that. We need to bring in the structural reforms to support small businesses and—

Mr. Speaker, I will note the point made by the parliamentary secretary in respect to global uncertainty, but I would just ask the member to acknowledge, despite their efforts and their policy of erasure in respect to Justin Trudeau, that we can do more for small businesses in Canada today through regulatory change, supporting trade resilience and actually building the major projects that we thought were going to take place this year under Bill C-5, legislation that Conservatives supported again. I understand that the first project will be approved in the coming weeks, but we need not one; we need 100. We have to move at speeds we have never seen before, and we are not seeing that from the current government, so please, stand up for Canada, get the bureaucracy out of the way and do more to support our small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, one in five small businesses are in weak or critical condition. They are calling on the government to lower costs and improve small business competitiveness. Conservatives have identified over $150 billion in savings that could lower the overall tax burden for Canadians and small businesses. To save Canadians money, will the government consider expanding its plan to cut unnecessary consultants who do not provide value for money?

Mr. Speaker, let me give an example. The women entrepreneurship loan fund was supposed to help women start and grow their businesses. After filing an ATIP that took 915 days to receive, I learned that the Women's Enterprise Organizations of Canada met only 6% of application targets and 7% of loan targets, despite receiving millions of dollars from Canadians. Canadians expect results from their taxpayer dollars, not more spending on consultants. Why will the government not cut taxes, help entrepreneurs and save money for Canadians and our small businesses?

Mr. Speaker, I have a number of petitions to present today. The first is petition e-7198, which has 5,746 signatures. It calls upon the Minister of Fisheries to not remove the recreational access to chinook and coho salmon in the allotment of salmon allocation. The petitioners note that they want to respect the rights of first nations and the conservation policies of the government, but they would like to maintain common property resource access for recreational fishers as well. They also note that commercial interests do not supersede those recreational interests.

Mr. Speaker, the second petition I would like to present today is with regard to the elimination of the federal apprenticeship incentive. The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to reinstate the apprenticeship incentive grant for Red Seal trades, index it to inflation, link it to the successful completion of technical training and ensure timely, predictable payments to support apprentices during their training.

Mr. Speaker, the third petition I would like to present today is on nicotine pouches. This petition is being presented on behalf of small businesses, including convenience stores. The petitioners call upon the Minister of Health to remove the restrictions on the sale of nicotine pouches to only pharmacies in order to allow convenience stores to sell the product as well. The petitioners also note that the actions of the government have led to an illegal online trade and that it would be better to tax the product in Canada, versus allowing American producers to reap the economic benefits.

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-30 contains proposed new provisions under the Privacy Act and the Canada Transportation Act to assess the full value of our publicly owned airports. Rumours in British Columbia dictate that part of the new security agreement with China would allow Chinese companies to buy airports in Canada. Can the member confirm or deny this?

Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I asked a Liberal member a very simple question: Could he confirm or deny the rumours in British Columbia that, under the new security partnership between Canada and China and the government's desire to sell federal airport assets, Chinese companies would be able to buy those assets? He could not answer that question. Does the Bloc Québécois agree that Chinese companies buying Canadian airports would pose security threats to Canada's security intelligence regime?

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honour the life of Mel Zajac, a remarkable British Columbian whose compassion and generosity left an enduring imprint. Mel's life was marked by a profound tragedy that ultimately inspired a legacy of extraordinary philanthropy. In July 1986, he lost his son Mel Jr. in a tragic accident on the Chilliwack River. Just eight months later, his son Marty was killed in an avalanche near Blue River in the Cariboo. In their memory, Mel founded The Mel Jr. and Marty Zajac Foundation in 1987, dedicating himself to helping others. Through his work, including the creation of Zajac Ranch, he ensured that children of all abilities could experience the joy, inclusion and confidence that come from summer camp. Because of his vision, countless children and families, many of whom face major medical challenges, have been given opportunities that might otherwise have been out of reach. At the age of 98, we have lost a truly extraordinary Canadian. I extend my sincere condolences to the Zajac family and to all those who mourn Mel's passing while celebrating his remarkable legacy.

Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House we are incredibly worried. Statistics Canada reported on May 29 that “business capital investment fell 0.7% in the first quarter of 2026, the fifth consecutive quarterly decline”. After years of policies that have left small business owners struggling, will these Liberals reverse their policies so businesses can get ahead?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal member for Eglinton—Lawrence badgered the CFIB as to why his own government's policies were not reaching Canadian small businesses. The CFIB says three in four entrepreneurs do not feel supported by the government, and many would not start a business today. Why will the government not lower costs and give small businesses a real chance to compete, so we do not continue losing capital to other countries?