Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair and distinguished members of the committee, I am pleased to be here today. My name is Pierre Cléroux, and I am the chief economist of the Business Development Bank of Canada. With me today is Karen Kastner, vice-president of Government Relations.
In the context of your study of Bill C-74, I would like to talk to you briefly about who we are, and then give you an overview of the current environment in which Canadian SMEs operate and what the BDC does.
BDC is the only bank dedicated exclusively to entrepreneurs. We are a financially sustainable crown corporation that does not rely on Canadian taxpayers.
We work with nearly 50,000 entrepreneurs in all parts of the country and all sectors of the economy. We provide support in the form of loans, investments, and advice to help them grow their business. We do not provide grants or subsidies. Rather, we operate on commercial terms as a complimentary lender, and support creditworthy businesses with viable projects.
With our network of clients across the country, we can really put our finger on the pulse of Canadian entrepreneurs and the challenges they face.
From an economic perspective, global growth brings good news for Canadian entrepreneurs. Last year's expansion was broad-based, with all sectors of the economy contributing. In 2018, all sectors are expected to continue to grow, though there were contractions in real estate and oil and gas during January.
In terms of general sentiment among Canadian SMEs, the mood is optimistic. At the same time, SMEs are facing some challenges, including the changing and increasing digital economy, aging entrepreneurs and workforce, difficulty attracting and retaining talent, the direction of the U.S. administration, etc.
For SMEs, there's general liquidity in the market. Access to capital is easy for well-established businesses and traditional business models. However, when it comes to asset-light companies and innovative business models, they have more difficulty accessing capital. Financial institutions have not fully adapted to the reality of financing or investing in technology companies. However, we are seeing consistent improvements in this area.
At BDC, these trends are hugely important for us. We are continually innovating to meet the needs of entrepreneurs by expanding our offerings, changing the ways in which we interact with entrepreneurs and improving our delivery model.
Despite the uncertainty in their landscape, we are constantly encouraging SMEs to invest in their business. By doing so, they can improve their resilience. Simply put, businesses that invest more, experience stronger growth. That, in turn, means a stronger Canadian economy. We want to see more business investment across the board.
That's where BDC can play a role, by both investing and providing advice to help SMEs grow. At the end of this fiscal year 2018—and please note that these numbers are unaudited and might change slightly—our total financing commitments to Canadian SMEs hit $28.8 billion. On the venture capital side, our investments in high potential innovative companies and funds reached a total commitment of $1.26 billion.
We are also investing in key areas of the economy to help unleash the potential of women entrepreneurs, for example. As indicated in the budget, building on the success of our previous women entrepreneur initiative, we have set a new bold and ambitious target to lend $1.4 billion to women entrepreneurs over the next three years. That's double our previous target.
The budget also announced the expansion of our women in technology venture capital fund, from $70 million to $200 million. This is now the largest VC fund dedicated to supporting and scaling women-led technology businesses in the world.
We are also investing in a number of other key areas, such as clean tech and later stage venture capital, through the new venture capital catalyst initiative. Given the time constraints, Karen and I would be delighted to receive your questions on any of these issues, or the state of small and medium-sized businesses in Canada more broadly.
Thank you.