Thank you very much, and thank you to the minister for being here this afternoon. This is an important topic, and it's very near and dear to the hearts of Canadians.
We're looking at the recent economic performance of small and medium-sized businesses, and one of the key issues, of course, is access to capital. We know over the last year, according to Industry Canada sources, that the financing approval rate has been declining. Specifically, in 2009, we did ask the banks about this. They talked about less of a demand at their level, as well as some of the challenges with some of the other withdrawals in the community, due to foreign banks and others putting in capital. They said there's kind of a perfect storm here.
One of the things I asked about was Canadian small business financing, and they gave you kudos, of course, for making some of the changes that you talked about with regard to increasing the levels. They did say, however, that there was still a significant administrative burden, and I'm wondering if you, Madam Minister, could just comment on some of those administrative burdens and how you're going to mitigate those concerns.