Thank you for the question.
I think the reflex for alternatives, especially among young entrepreneurs looking for collective enterprises, social entrepreneurship, is really taking off in universities and colleges. People are looking for alternatives, whether it's B corps, co-ops, or social enterprises.
What we found in our analysis of the existing programs, and was the reason for our recommendation related to opening up small and medium enterprise programs offered by the federal government, was that only about 10% have actual regulatory or legislative barriers to serving social enterprises, non-profits, or co-operatives, but the major problem is demystification, right?
Among the public in general but especially the employees, the public servants working in those programs, there's a reluctance to be serving in non-profit because it's a different structure, a different approach, and they're not sure they're eligible.
We're recommending there, in fact, be an effort of education, an awareness-raising. The fact is that collective enterprises have double the five- and 10-year survival rate of traditional SME start-ups. There's an extremely viable business structure that has, in addition, tremendous social and economic benefits for local communities.
Another very positive step forward was the inclusion of social innovation and social enterprise in Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's new innovation strategy, at least in the consultations so far.
We have great hopes that this is a new step forward in terms of opening up what used to be Industry Canada's programs and interest, support for a co-op movement and others, and I think there's a lot of potential.