If I had been here six months ago I would have said the credit market is working fine. When there are some issues that need to be resolved, we can take them to the private sector institutions or to EDC. I don't know if that's the institution you were alluding to, but EDC plays a significant role helping Canadian exporters grow into international markets.
I would say that the situation since October has changed dramatically. Access to credit is a big issue for our members, and it's not necessarily anybody's fault, it's just that circumstances are like that. We have to keep in mind that almost half of the credit that was provided to our members was provided by foreign institutions. We've talked about asset-backed commercial lending. A lot of that has disappeared. Venture capital has pretty much dried up in Canada. There are a lot of credit facilities or different types of credit that are just not available right now, so I think there's a strong role for the government to step in and take some of the risks that the traditional banks are not able to take right now and get into some of the markets that some institutions are getting out of in the Canadian market.
So yes, I think there's a very strong role for the government to temporarily occupy the space that the private sector has left void. That's why we made our first request for the federal budget to ensure access to credit for competitive companies. We're not asking to put money in failing companies, but some of our members are in a good position to grow in international markets, and just because they happen to be in the wrong industrial sector or in the wrong area, they're not able to access credit and that constrains their growth as a company.
What was announced in the federal budget was a significant step in the right direction. As far as I've heard, the bill that those measures are in has not been adopted yet, so I don't think BDC and EDC can actually go out and put new products and services on the market. But we're working with them very closely to make sure that whatever they come up with is going to respond to the needs of our members.