I can start with the last point that you raised in terms of high-tech companies. We've introduced a $250-million program through the industrial research assistance program, to help high-tech companies, start-up companies, pre-revenue companies, companies that are scaling up, SAS enterprises and so on. When we have broad-based programs, we recognize that some companies might not necessarily get the support they need, so we quickly pivoted and supported our start-up ecosystem through that initiative. If necessary, we will scale that up.
In terms of the challenges that businesses are facing, we have put forward record liquidity measures through the Business Development Bank of Canada and Export Development Canada, as well as by working with our financial institutions. Right now, hundreds of thousands of loans have been issued to small businesses.
The point I want to underscore there is that for many communities, small businesses are too big to fail. Prior to COVID-19, we had over one million small businesses, employing over eight million Canadians. That is why we are working around the clock to support our small businesses through the different measures we've introduced over the past several weeks.
Very quickly, because you raised the point, when it comes to the oil and gas sector, I work very closely with Seamus O'Regan to make sure that we look at investments to not only see that sector thrive, because they are facing a set of challenges, but also to focus on the small and medium-sized enterprises and how we can help them transition this energy sector to a low-carbon economy.