This is a speech that I delivered in the House of commons on June 22 in the context of a debate over a motion introduced by the opposition to lower small business taxes. You can watch the video (in French only) or read an adapted transcript of the speech below.

Opposition Motion-Small Businesses
June 22, 2011

Hon. Maxime Bernier (Minister of State (Small Business and Tourism), CPC): Madam Speaker, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to the motion moved by my NDP colleagues concerning the taxation of small businesses in Canada.

Everyone knows that I come from a region that promotes entrepreneurship. I am very proud to represent the people of Beauce. Beauce is a haven for SMEs. At one time, the people there were called the Japanese of Quebec because they are entrepreneurs who do not wait for government help to create wealth. They are resourceful and independent and like to take calculated risks.

I feel very comfortable voting in favour of the motion before us today because it reflects the position of our government as well. As I was saying earlier, over the last few years, our government has always supported small businesses and small business owners, since we know that they create wealth and drive the economy. A big, intrusive government will not create wealth, as the NDP likes to say during election campaigns and even here in the House, always proposing state involvement in response to a problem in society, either through regulations on individuals or businesses or an increase in their costs. We promote economic freedom and entrepreneurship. That is what creates jobs.

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As everyone knows by now, I was reelected MP for Beauce on May 2nd with 50.7% of the votes. It is a great honour for me to receive this third mandate to represent the Beaucerons in Canada’s Parliament.

And today, at the swearing-in ceremony for the new cabinet, the Prime Minister also entrusted me with the position of Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, a new challenge that I accept with great enthusiasm.

Small businesses, including those in Canada’s tourism sector, are the backbone of our economy. Entrepreneurship and economic development are topics that I have felt passionately about for a very long time. My native region, the Beauce, is often described as the kingdom of small businesses.

I am thus very happy to play a role in our new government with the goal of maintaining the best environment possible so that Canada’s small businesses continue to prosper.

It should be noted that as a minister, I am like all my colleagues bound by cabinet solidarity and my public declarations must reflect the government’s positions. I therefore have less scope than I had as a simple MP to express my ideas and take public stands on various topics, as I did these past few years. The content of this blog will thus be a bit different from now on.

Finally, I want to give my warmest thanks to the many people who have sent me words of support during the election campaign and during the past few days.

This blog will remain inactive

until election day on May 2.

I invite you to follow all the news

about my campaign in the Beauce

at my new campaign blog:

www.maximebernier2011.com

Here is my last press review before the election campaign, during which I will have another blog specifically devoted to my campaign in Beauce. Its address will soon be announced here. 

On February 24, I gave a presentation in French on inflation and monetary policy at the Club canadien de Toronto. It can be viewed in its entirety here on CPAC. Francophone students from the Toronto region also attented my conference. Two publications covered the event:

Vincent Muller, “Maxime Bernier veut détruire le mythe de l’inflation utile,” L’Express

Benoit Gheeraert, “Maxime Bernier au déjeuner du Club canadien de Toronto,” Le Métropolitain

Here are other articles of interest:

Joël-Denis Bellavance, “Québec récupère des thèses de Maxime Bernier” , La Presse

Éric Gagnon Poulin, “Maxime Bernier courtise les gens d’affaires“, Édition Beauce

Élise Giguère, “Maxime Bernier s’explique à Crabtree“, L’Action

Here are some articles that appeared in the media following my recent declaration on Bill 101.

Alexander Panetta, “Bernier takes a bat to Quebec’s language law,” The Toronto Star
Benjamin Shingler, “Maxime Bernier fights back after Bill 101 comment,” The Toronto Star
Benjamin Shingler, “Bernier blasted for calling Quebec language law unnecessary,” The Globe and Mail
Gerry Nichols, “We need more Max Berniers,” The Ottawa Citizen
Janice Kennedy, “Tackling inconvenient realities,” The Ottawa Citizen
L. Ian MacDonald, “Bernier’s views actually help Harper,” The Expositor
Dan Arnold, “Maxime Bernier gives us a policy debate, like it or not,” The National Post
Warren Kinsella, “Tres bien Maxime, tres bien,” The Toronto Sun
Chantal Hébert, “Bernier misses point of Bill 101,” The Toronto Star
Tasha Kheiriddin, “How Bill 101 saved Canada,” The National Post
Naomi Lakritz, “Merci, M. Bernier, for challenging Bill 101,” The Province
Graeme Hamilton, “Bernier’s language law: say anything,” The National Post

Agence QMI, “Loi 101: Maxime Bernier en remet,” Canoë Infos
Presse canadienne, “Loi 101: les propos de Maxime Bernier décriés,” Le Soleil
Manon Cornellier, “Revue de presse: Maximania,” Le Devoir
Valère Audy, “Le député Bernier est dans le champ,” La Voix de l’Est
Richard Martineau, “Lettre aux régions,” Canoë Infos
Pierre Jury, “Maxime Bernier est dans l’erreur,” Le Droit
Jean-François Lisée, “À la défense de Maxime Bernier!,” L’actualité
Brigitte Breton, “Bernier déconnecté,” Le Soleil
André Pratte, “La loi 101, hier et aujourd’hui,” La Presse

Last Friday, I gave an interview to host Jordi Morgan at the Halifax radio station News 95.7. As part of a discussion on the federal government’s intrusions into areas of provincial jurisdictions, the show’s host asked me whether governments have a role to play in fostering a national identity through legislation, with laws like the Canada Health Act.

I answered that people know who they are and that it’s not the government’s role to create and protect a national identity. I used Quebec as an example and said that we don’t need Bill 101 to protect the French language.

I did not expect to create such a storm by expressing my belief that we should let people act like free and responsible individuals, including when it comes to protecting their language, instead of relying on government coercion to do it for them.

This has since generated several denunciations from public figures in Quebec and a wave of angry comments on the Internet.

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Last Monday, I left for Newfoundland and spent the whole week in Atlantic Canada.

The first few days were devoted to an official visit in the region by the Commons committee on National Defence, of which I am chairman, to examine the state of search and rescue operations. Rescuing Canadians in trouble at sea is an important task and our Forces and Coast Guard should have the means to carry it out properly. We held hearings in Gander and St. John´s and visited search and rescue stations. We were also supposed to go to Greenwood, N. S., but unfortunately the big snow storm that hit the region forced us to cancel that visit. The visit ended in Halifax on Thursday.

Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of being invited to speak to the Dalhousie University Liberty Society, where I gave a version of my speech on Doing politics differently. This is a group of enthusiastic students who want to promote the principles of individual freedom and small government. I want to thank Michael Kennedy for bringing this group together.

On Friday morning, I had a breakfast and interesting discussion on public policy issues with a group from the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies, Atlantic Canada’s free market think tank. As everyone knows, I worked at the Montreal Economic Institute in 2005 before going into politics, and I find that these think tanks do tremendous work in terms of bringing up new ideas and fostering public debate. I want to thank AIMS’s president, Charles Cirtwill, for inviting me.

From there, I went to Halifax’s radio station News 95.7 to discuss politics with host Jordi Morgan. Most of the half hour interview was devoted to a discussion of my proposal to restore our Constitution and end federal involvement in provincial jurisdictions. But I also made comments that attracted media attention, which I discuss in another blog post that will follow this one.

Last Tuesday (January 25), I was invited to speak at a meeting of the Sales and Advertising Club in Belleville, Ontario. The point of my presentation was to show that when corporations are less burdened by taxes and better able to produce goods and services, we all benefit: as workers who get paid better; as consumers who get more for their money; and as investors who get a better return.

This is why the Liberals and NDP are misguided when they say they might vote against the coming budget because they oppose the planned corporate tax cuts. As I said before, this tax should be cut even further and eventually abolished, just like the federal tax on capital was abolished a few years ago, because it is a dumb tax on a wealth-creating process.

The local newspaper, the Belleville Intelligencer, covered the event and published this report: W. Brice McVicar, “Corporate tax benefits all: Bernier. Conservative MP speaks in Belleville.”

On Thursday (January 27), I gave another speech at the St-Georges Chamber of commerce in my riding of Beauce. I spoke about how excessive money creation by central banks brings about inflation, encourage debt and provoke cycles of booms and busts. It was more or less the same speech I gave last year at the Economic Club in Toronto.

That event also got coverage from the local media:

Frédéric Poulin, “Maxime Bernier veut la fin de l’inflation et le retour à l’étalon-or,” L’Éclaireur-Progrès.
Éric Gagnon Poulin, “Maxime Bernier s’insurge contre les banques centrales,” ÉditionBeauce.com.
Jean-François Fecteau, “Maxime Bernier s’enflamme contre l’inflation à Saint-Georges,” EnBeauce.com.

At a press conference this morning in Montreal, I was asked about the recent developments regarding the funding of a new Quebec City hockey coliseum. A few days ago, Quebecor’s owner and the main sponsor of this project, Pierre-Karl Péladeau, announced that he was willing to invest directly several million dollars in the building.

Misinterpreting my answer, a journalist from Mr Péladeau’s network posted an article (see an English version here) saying that I was now “open to federal funding.” All I said however was that I was happy to see this new funding offer from the private sector and that my government – more specifically the minister in charge of this file, my colleague Josée Verner – would gladly review the new offer, as it has reviewed the previous offers.

As I have said and written several times over the past months, I believe that the private sector should be mainly responsible for this type of projects. Moreover, at a time when we have a big budget deficit to eliminate, financing sporting infrastructure should not be a priority. Providing funds to one project in Quebec City would also mean that the government has to fund other projects across the country to be fair to everyone, which would cost huge sums of money. I have not changed my position in any way on this issue.

I gave two major radio interviews in French since the beginning of the year, which can be listened to on the Web.  

The first one was with Isabelle Maréchal at 98,5 FM, where we discussed various topics in relation to my carreer, the current political situation and my media interventions of recent months. 

The second one was with Christiane Charette at Radio-Canada, where I and a number of guests, including former minister Claude Castonguay, discussed the killing in Arizona, my recent intervention on the plan to set up a national securities commission, and Mr. Castonguay’s proposal to create a new pension program. 

The Financial Post published a slightly modified version en English (where I also mention Alberta’s position) of my Le Devoir oped piece  on the national securities commission.

Here are also an article by Bill Curry in the Globe and Mail and a column by Éric Duhaime in the Toronto Sun dealing with the same topic.

Update 26 March 2011:
Joël-Denis Bellavance, “Québec récupère des thèses de Maxime Bernier” , La Presse