Mr. Gillis:

No. What you fail to understand, my dear little unsophisticated friend, is that this system of enterprise today is not free. Today the big fellow is gobbling up the little fellow. Let the big shipyard operator over here listen and I will give him a few figures.

Mr. Smith (Calgary West):

Are you pointing at me? Thanks very much, sir.

Mr. Gillis:

These are the figures for commercial failures during the calendar year 1941 as published by the dominion bureau of statistics. This report contains the figures from 1936 but I am not going to put them all on the record. I am going to take the totals for the years 1945 to 1948, and I think that is a fair comparison with what has happened in Saskatchewan. I am going to put these figures on the record province by province.

Commercial failures in the province of Prince Edward Island, where you would not think there was anything, amounted to fifteen. These commercial failures have happened even under Mr. Jones' management. In Nova Scotia, under our great Angus, there have been twenty-one commercial failures.

Mr. Sinclair:

What type of firms?

Mr. McCann:

What size of firms?

Mr. Isnor:

We have not had a failure in Nova Scotia.

Mr. Gillis:

Now they are jumping up on both sides of the house. They do not like to hear the facts being put on the record.

Mr. Cockeram:

We want the facts as they are.

Mr. Gillis:

I hope you are not suggesting the dominion bureau of statistics does not publish the facts.

Mr. Ross (St. Paul's):

Give us the value.

Mr. Gillis:

We did not give you the value in Saskatchewan. You cannot take it now.

The Budget-Mr. Gillis At the mere mention of twenty-one failures in Nova Scotia, up jumps the protector of free enterprise, the senior member for Halifax (Mr. Isnor). In New Brunswick there were twenty-three commercial failures.

Mr. Ross (St. Paul's):

What was the value?

Mr. Gillis:

You would not understand if I told you. In the province of Quebec there were 1,496 commercial failures, and that is under the Duplessis government.

Mr. Ross (St. Paul's):

What was the value?

Mr. Gillis:

In Ontario there were two hundred and thirty-five commercial failures; Manitoba, fifteen commercial failures; Saskatchewan, six commercial failures; Alberta, twenty-two commercial failures; British Columbia, from which the hon. member for Vancouver North (Mr. Sinclair) comes, eighty-five commercial failures. The total for Canada was 19,098.

Let me also point to a trend in this matter. I will take it for the whole of Canada for the years I have just given. In 1946, there were 278 failures; in 1947, 545; in 1948, 813. That clearly indicates what I said a moment ago to the member for Lake Centre (Mr. Diefenbaker), that the big fellow is swallowing up the little fellow. It is there that you get your commercial failures, and the trend is towards monopoly all the time. Eaton's and Simpson's, the chain stores, are taking over in the field of distribution. The little fellow who does not go along and make his mark-up and do what he is told by the manufacturer who supplies him is told: "Get in

line, Willie, or no more goods for you." The little fellow is folded up. It is neither free nor enterprise.

Mr. Ross (St. Paul's):

May I ask the hon. gentleman a question?

Mr. Gillis:

No, I do not want to listen to you.

Mr. Ross (St. Paul's):

May I ask a question?

Mr. Gillis:

My time is getting short.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Golding):

Order.