We recently launched this important program, and we received some money from the Government of Canada. This will allow us to go from 41% in loans to 50% in loans. It requires capacity, information, and it requires people on the ground.
In case you didn't know, the aboriginal entrepreneurship program used to be a larger program back in the 90s, when it was initiated. Over the last 20 years, we've seen a reduction in services and resources. An AFI that was able to hire four or five business development officers to line up projects [Technical difficulty—Editor] that it was accessing and starting a business, they might have only one or two people in-house covering the same area.
We need to return to historical levels of funding to support the needs on the ground. This can be done together in a co-designed and co-developed way, so that aboriginal financial institutions have what they need on the ground.
The housing program that I talked about is filling a gap between social housing and mainstream lending. There is a sweet spot in the middle, and an opportunity of $3 billion to $4 billion in first nations communities for people who are able to take out a mortgage, but nobody wants to give them one.