We think so. There are other parts, such as the VCAP that's going to be adopted in this government. I worked with Jim Flaherty in the previous government, and he asked me to be on a panel of that VCAP. We invested $400 million in the fund-of-funds and in incubators. There weren't any women around the table when we interviewed them. At the time, I said, “Look, can't we take 20% of these funds and invest them in women-owned businesses?” I saw it so clearly.
I made the recommendation to this government to do the same thing. There are ways in which we can filter our thinking to allow this to happen. Access to capital is probably the most difficult. It's the number one barrier that Elyse and I discovered. This is really critical. We have to push here. We have to find ways on the procurement side.
Scaling up is so important. It was the first assignment. How do we get entrepreneurs to scale up? Contracts allow people to scale up. You can go to a bank when you have a contract and get working capital to bridge your company. You can go to an investor and say, “Here: these are the contracts I have to get further equity investment in your company.” These are such important parts of how we can grow this part of our sector.
Elyse.