Thank you for your charitable intentions.
Thank you to all our witnesses.
As the sponsor and author of the better aid bill, which is Canada's only legislated mandate for ODA, I have a parental and protective interest in seeing that the principles of the bill are incorporated into this entity, and hence I do like your idea of poverty reduction being the focus of this financial institution.
The reason for the bill in the first place is that governments wander, ministers wander. We put aid money into all kinds of projects having absolutely nothing to do with poverty reduction, but we try to dress it up as poverty reduction. I think the conversation as to what is poverty is an interesting conversation, but if you don't start at first principles—that the point of this entire exercise is poverty reduction—then you will be subject to the whims of any government or any minister, so I buy your core point.
The second issue, and I want to pursue this discussion, is that feminism has rightly been, if you will, woven into the government's approach. It's a good idea. The issue is that, if in fact you start to pursue smaller projects, you will up your overhead considerably. If you're doing mentorship, if you're doing expertise provision, and if you are upping your overhead per dollar loaned, you are going to have fewer dollars loaned, or you are going to possibly have to go to market rates, which are highly inflationary, or you're going to have to recapitalize on a regular basis.
I'd be interested in comments from both of you as to the possible unintended or unanticipated consequences of focusing on small and medium-sized loans, which will inevitably cut you out of the highly profitable other loans.