Mr. Easter, I can take that one.
We did participate in what's called the BCAP steering committee, which includes members of commercial banks, the heads of small business banks at most of the major financial institutions, together with the Credit Union Association, etc. We used that forum to help guide us: not only to give us the data on what's coming through the financial institutions—because that's really where the loan must originate—to give us some qualitative data on what they see coming through, but also to talk to us about what they're hearing from their customers.
When I talk to them and when I reach out to Canadian companies, what they're telling me is that job number one was to reduce their operating expenses in whatever way they possibly could. The first thing their bank told them was to reduce their operating expenses and really make sure they were managing their own expense profile. Job number two was sitting down with their bank and looking at what they could do with their bank specifically.
Many banks have issued waivers and consents or adjusted the payment profile of some loans, and all of this was done in the context of not understanding when the economy would open up. Back in March, many of the companies we talked to were planning a three-month assumption as to when they would see the economy opening up. As things got worse, they weren't really sure that was the assumption they should plan under.
Now what the banks are telling us is that the companies perhaps have line of sight to the economy opening up. They're starting to understand what they would need to do with their inventory. They may be recalling employees. They have a better understanding of their costs. Equally, they may be talking to their customers about when orders will be coming in. Starting to build those scenarios and understand their business is then allowing them to start building confidence in whether they can take on debt and how long they will take to repay that debt. It's truly been, I would say, different reactions at different times.