Thank you very much for raising that question; it's certainly one we're interested in. I can say that all of the Canadian banks have activity and interest in this area, and I can speak specifically on Scotiabank's involvement.
About six or seven years ago, we brought forward a program called Scotia farm legacy services to address this very issue of transition from one generation to the next. The purpose behind that program is to take a look at the whole situation of the farm client, not just one-silo investments or the soft issues or the accounting issues, but the whole picture of the farm clients. And we bring in the specialists of the farm client.
When it comes to the next generation and financing them, that's part of our program as well. We certainly want the business to continue. We have to look at how we can do that. We have some financing programs in place to involve the retiring generation in a vendor take-back approach, and I'm sure the other banks have mechanisms that they bring to bear.
We do not want to saddle that next generation with so much debt that there is no ability to withstand any bump in the economy or in their situation. We have to walk that very fine line of finding a solution that is long term in nature, that probably involves the retiring generation, but that continues the operation. We're very serious and very interested in that.