Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak in honour of Small Business Week, and start by saying that this government would not know the meaning of the theme "You have the Power Behind the Canadian Economy - Let's Share the Energy" if it were written on their foreheads.
Mr. Speaker, last week, I met with the representatives from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. I learned, again, the challenges and opportunities our small businesses face in the North. I learned that they are very concerned about the ever-increasing input costs, like the high insurance premiums, cost of energy, fuel, taxes, from all three levels of government, and WCB premiums and, on top of all that, mountains of paperwork and red tape from this government, and chronic shortage of trained labour.
In spite of that, Mr. Speaker, they continue to provide our economy with good jobs, even if they keep losing them to bigger employers like the government and large industries. They give generously to numerous organizations and causes in communities they operate in. They go through endless ups and downs, but they persevere. They stick around. They are investing money and time and their sweat, because they believe in what they do because they have faith in our economy.
It is just too bad, Mr. Speaker, that this government does not have half as much of faith and confidence in them. For years, this government has been pointing its finger everywhere outward as to why we don't have economic development opportunities going on in so many of regional centres and small communities. They say it is because we don't have EDA funding. We don't have resource revenue sharing...