Industry committee  I would just say that the program authority needs to be renewed, as has been the case every five years for 20 years. There's nothing particularly new in it; it's always up for renewal at this period of time.

Industry committee  Certainly one of our roles as a department--and it's true of all the regional development agencies--is to bring a focus from the region in which we're located to Government of Canada policy generally, so the things we learn, see, and hear when we're working with people are things

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. I'll let my CFO speak a bit to the actual volumes of the money. What I can say is that we're winding down to the back end of that program now. We did a couple of things that I think are very important in the context of this program. At the beginnin

Industry committee  Again, I'm not sure of the exact number that you're talking about there. It's not one that I'm familiar with. I do know that some of the organizations we have dealt with have in fact increased their earnings on their loan portfolios and they've actually triggered some repayment

Industry committee  There isn't 42% of our money that has lapsed. If you're talking about the CAF program in particular, we're at almost 80% of having committed that money in the space of about four or five months, in the time since the application process was completed. That has actually gone on

Industry committee  No, not at all. In fact, that 20% will be committed within a very short period of time. Again, I should say that this is not only committing the money for all of this year; it's also committing the money for all of next year. Within something like the next 60 days, not only wil

Industry committee  As you mentioned earlier, small and medium enterprises are very important in the economy of western Canada and the Canadian economy generally. Community Futures Development Corporations are over 20 years old now. They are organizations that provide services in rural Canada in p

Industry committee  I'm not exactly certain of the statistics you're reporting there. I do remember a report by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. I don't remember any specific provisions referring to the Community Futures Development Corporations. What I can say is that the Department of Western E

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  In terms of support to small and medium enterprises, which is obviously something the department takes very seriously, on the CAF, in fact—

Industry committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here. I'll try to keep my remarks brief and leave as much time as possible for questions. I am very pleased to be here to discuss the Supplementary Estimates for Western Economic Diversification Canada in the company of my colleagues

Government Operations committee  We had that conversation, but the timeline was nowhere as long as 30 days. That would have been—

Government Operations committee  It was very short, and yes, absolutely, this has been a pressing concern of my minister all along, and from the day after the budget we have been called to any number of meetings by my minister, by other departments. This has been a number one priority.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Well, in the case of the Canada Business Network, it was laid out in the budget itself. It's a program we have been working with for quite some time, so it's simply a continuation of work we have been doing in the past, albeit with a new amount of money that was annou

Government Operations committee  In the world of contribution programs generally, when you think of people looking for work who are maybe unemployed or underemployed, there are four key conversations that happen. The first one is “We'll see”. That conversation started on January 27, when people had heard about t