Sure. I'll start and then I'll pass it over.
With respect to the loans fund, I should begin by mentioning that TRIEC was started as a project of the Maytree Foundation, so there's a relationship between the two organizations. About five years ago we started the loan program, recognizing that immigrants were not able to get credit to borrow money for tuition to get training, to sit for licensing exams they had to pay for, or to receive income support while they were not working. So they created a loan fund for loans up to $5,000.
It was an incredibly unattractive interest rate—prime plus 6%. To my mind, it was a bad product. But people still took it because they weren't able to get credit elsewhere. It shows the vacuum in the availability of credit. Credit was necessary to allow them to get the qualifications or training required to move on and become employed.
The repayment of those loans has been phenomenal. I think that speaks to the viability of the program. I know they're in discussions right now with the Royal Bank of Canada, to look at their interest in coming on board. I think it should also be taken up by the federal government. This department, Citizenship and Immigration, had a wonderful experience with the transportation loan made available to immigrants years ago. The repayment rate was 90%. This allows individuals to take the training they need. It also prevents the creation of paid-for streams of programming that other Canadians can't access. So you're not creating free programs for one group and not the others. We have training and education programs that Canadians pay for and get loans for, and this would provide an equal opportunity for others.
This type of thing makes sense in enabling tuition. We have to consider income supports. The Canada student loans program provides income support for education and training, and so should this type of loan program.
In answer to your question, I think that's different. I think that's allowing people to enhance their skills and get Canadian credentials. It's different if you're trying to entice or encourage employers to step into this field. I think you need to encourage them with things like tax credits, possibly wage subsidies. It has to be made easy.