Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My first question is for BDC. My personal experience is that the new manufacturing companies in Canada have quite a bit of difficulty in accessing capital. In this same room, a couple of weeks back, we had the federal economic development agencies, and we asked them if an entrepreneur comes in with a proposal to set up a new manufacturing company, what do they do? One of them bluntly told me, “No, we don't finance them”. Tuesday morning I had discussions with two eastern Ontario development agencies: the Kingston Economic Development Corporation and the Quinte Economic Development Commission. They said the same thing, that access to capital for small manufacturing companies is quite difficult to get.
How many new small manufacturing companies have you supported during the last year?