Great. I'm pleased to see that.
Going to the survey, then, Mr. Conway, maybe you can help us square this circle. You say right in there that access to credit has significantly tightened up, the cost has risen, and the process of securing it is more difficult, in particular for SMEs.
We all recognize, of course, that all of a sudden you're basically telling rural Canada that no credit is available. You don't have your large corporate entities in a lot of your rural areas, yet maybe 70% to 75% of all the SMEs are located there. However, they have no access to capital.
I need to square the circle a little bit. The banks told this committee that their loan portfolios expanded by 12%, 14%, 16%, yet anecdotal evidence we hear--and Mr. McKay raised this issue on a number of occasions--from retail, from wholesale, and from the industrial manufacturing sector says there is no funding available, and of course your survey basically endorses that principle.
I would like to understand who is telling the truth. Is there a contradiction, or is this financing just available totally through other sources?