Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and all of you.
My name is Julia Deans. We were created in 1996 as the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, now Futurpreneur Canada. We're the only national non-profit organization that does the heavy lifting to give 18- to 39-year-olds the business coaching, collateral-free financing, mentors, networks, and the other key resources they need to launch and sustain successful businesses. We have a strong record of advancing economic growth. We've invested in 9,000 young entrepreneurs, who've created 36,000 jobs, over $224 million in tax revenue, and they have a better-than-average business survival rate. Last year alone, we helped launch over 1,000 new businesses, and demand for our offering continues to grow.
We're a leader in advancing youth entrepreneurship, and we help young Canadian entrepreneurs connect with the world through the G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance, Global Entrepreneurship Week, and Youth Business International.
We have regional hubs in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, and representatives in 12 other locations, and we work with 350 community partners across Canada. The federal government has been a partner of ours since 2002, and the federal funding we receive helps us leverage a great deal of other government and corporate funding.
We have access to more than 9,000 young entrepreneurs, and our goal is to help them grow through increased trade and innovation. We support businesses in virtually every sector, and I'm really thrilled to have a chance to discuss youth entrepreneurship in manufacturing today.
As you know, SMEs employ more than 60% of the people working in manufacturing, and in many smaller communities, from Newfoundland to Quebec, it's responsible for over 50% of total employment.
We're proud to have supported 182 young entrepreneurs who launched manufacturing businesses in the last five years, including 46 last year. They're making everything from machinery and equipment to food, apparel, fabricated metal, electronics, and complicated medical technologies. It's people like Erin and Joshua Bradshaw of Vital Manufacturing in Surrey, BC. They provide turnkey, innovative manufacturing solutions, and every product they make is designed and manufactured in Canada. They also source most of their components here. We also help Futurpreneurs Alexis Martel and Julien Couture, owners of Lunetterie Générale. They produce wooden glasses entirely in Asbestos, Quebec. Manufacturing is a very capital-intensive business. They needed over $1 million to launch, and we were the first to finance them. They're now distributing in 30 locations and will create seven jobs this year in Asbestos.
We loan young entrepreneurs up to $15,000, and, based on our record, BDC piggybacks another $30,000, so a young entrepreneur can get $45,000 without collateral. We also match them with a network of more than 2,700 volunteer networks across the country. This makes a big difference. Our young entrepreneurs become a preferred risk for banks and other funders. They have a better-than-average five-year survival rate, and 80% to 90% replay their loans.
Based on our experience in cross-country consultations, we see three opportunities for the government to champion and expand youth entrepreneurship in manufacturing. It won't surprise you then that our first recommendation is to support Futurpreneur Canada's proven start-up program with predictable long-term funding. Federal funding is one of the legs in our three-legged stool. With it we can leverage tremendous contributions from the corporate sector as well as other governments. Our new five-year strategy is to continue helping young people to launch, but to add more growth promotion and support from both us and other organizations that can help them.
Our second recommendation is to promote manufacturing entrepreneurship as a viable career path. Does this work? We recently targeted young entrepreneurs going into food processing, which has the second-highest sales of any manufacturing sector in Canada. Our three-year target was to help 13 new businesses launch. In just two years we've helped 26 young entrepreneurs launch food processing businesses. We did a targeted video and social media campaign featuring young entrepreneurs, like the Quebec-based founders of Bec Cola. They make organic maple syrup soda. They're already in markets, including Ontario and European countries, and they're now going to go into the U.S. and Japan. Two weeks ago they won our Beyond Borders Award. Young people are thinking about entrepreneurship more than ever, and we absolutely need to encourage them to bring their energy and ideas to manufacturing.
Manufacturing has the highest percentage of innovating firms, but it also has a lot of aging owners. We have to encourage young people to take over their businesses and make them better. What gives me hope is people like Alex Drysdale, of Stony Mountain, Manitoba. His company, Crik Nutrition, manufactures a cricket-based protein powder produced with a fraction of the space and emissions of animal-based blends. He's part of our spin master innovation fund that provides financing, mentoring, and networking with business leaders from across the country. Last year he was named one of the world's hottest 20 start-ups by CNBC.
Manufacturing accounts for 61% of our exports, and finding new markets is critical for an emerging manufacturer. This is why our third recommendation is that the federal government help young entrepreneurs grow their businesses within Canada and abroad. Promoting avenues to sell to government is a big example, and another is to support international market awareness and access.
If including young entrepreneurs in trade missions proves tricky, then other options exist. For example, Global Affairs offers information and strategic advice to the Canadian delegation we bring to the G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance Summit each year. This year, the 35-member delegation heading to China includes manufacturing entrepreneurs like Adam Camenzuli from Bowmanville. His company, KARIBU Solar Power, designs, manufactures, and distributes a solar pay-as-you-go business in a box kit for Tanzania to make energy available for the price of kerosene.
If we want to create jobs, grow our economy, and strengthen our communities, we must continue to invest in youth entrepreneurship. We must help young people see manufacturing as a path of great promise, and we must help them grow and succeed once they choose that path.
We're pleased that we have partnered with the Government of Canada for some time, and we look forward to working together to help more young people launch and grow businesses across the country, both in manufacturing and across all sectors.
Thank you very much.