Senator Henkel: My question is for the Business Council of Canada representatives. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, were hit hard by the pandemic, and they continue to operate in an uncertain economic climate. These SMEs often run up against biases and perceptions that hinder their ability to access financing and so on. In addition, SMEs don’t have the human and financial resources to participate in public tender processes.

In light of that, how does your council intend to support meaningful SME participation in the projects of general interest that Bill C-5 will enable once it’s in force?

Mr. Hyder: Thank you, senator. Again, I’m pleased to say that our organization, actually going back to the pandemic, has been working extremely closely with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Indigenous business chamber and others particularly for this reason because the reality is, as COVID demonstrated to us, when big businesses do well, the supply chain does well; and if big businesses are withdrawn from the economy, the supply chain suffers. That’s why we needed support programs during the pandemic because big businesses were able to effectively send their employees home and enable them to be able to work from home, but there went the restaurant, the dry cleaner and the coffee shop. Because without that connectivity between big business and smaller businesses, the smaller businesses end up suffering.

They are our partners. They are our supply chain. They enable us in many ways. So when I say “We’re in it together,” we’re absolutely in it together, and so it’s a sense of when big business does well, it allows the small businesses to do well as well because they benefit from the growth that’s going on. If they are struggling, it’s frankly because, as I mentioned earlier, we have a pretty stagnant economy. If it wasn’t for population growth, we’re basically 0% to 1% growth. That’s anemic growth. That should happen by accident in a country like ours. We should be aspiring to that 3%, 4%, 5% range. And it’s available to us, as I think all of us have alluded to in the course of our comments, if we’re simply able to get out of our way and continue to partner with the Indigenous communities, with small businesses, with women-owned businesses, and the entire community can do that together is our sense.

Senator Henkel: You didn’t quite answer my question.

We know how complex and difficult it is for SMEs to compete when it comes to answering calls for tenders, whether for contracts with government or big corporations. How do you plan to help these SMEs survive now that they are once again bearing the brunt of all our financial problems? Thank you.

Mr. Hyder: My intention was to answer the question as I have, which is that when big businesses do well our supply chain does well, and the supply chain is small businesses. That’s the response.

I will say that in specific projects it is possible. At a local community level, where you have a consortium that’s being put together, it would be good business practice to engage those smaller businesses locally to be a part of your response to any kind of RFPs or opportunities that emerge.

We’re talking here about multi-billion-dollar projects, so it will require large businesses to lead the way. When they do well the community does well, and within that community are the small- and medium-sized enterprises.