I recently spoke with people from the Business Development Bank of Canada, the BDC. These are highly competent and dedicated people, and the BDC does a great deal to develop entrepreneurs in Canada. However, it doesn't take long for you to hit a roadblock. What I often don't like, and this is at the Crown corporations, not just BDC, is that I get the impression they've lost all common sense. When I speak to people, sometimes I realize from the expressions on their faces that they're scanning their brains for the right compliance table in the computer system, the third tab or the fourth paragraph that will enable them to answer my question.
I recently spoke with someone at BDC when we visited the former Sears building at Place Fleur de Lys, in Quebec City, which is a registered heritage building. We're completely renovating the building and restoring it to its original state. I asked the BDC representatives if they could help me with the file and they told me that would be a good idea. However, one person started explaining the regulatory compliance framework to me and ultimately discovered, 14 subquestions later, that no compliance check mark is required for heritage buildings that are being restored to their original state. That person then began to explain to us that, on the other hand, if we went the green energy route in such and such a way, he'd be able to bring the project into compliance.
So now we've come to a point where we're working with officials who help us legally circumvent Crown corporation rules for meeting compliance tables using little check marks because we've completely lost all common sense.