Thank you for bringing that up, Mr. Easter.
I think earlier in this study you had a witness from the Business Development Bank who discussed the sorts of consulting services they provide small businesses. I think there could be a broader holistic approach to encouraging the growth of business abroad through the existing mechanisms, through a simpler interface with the trade commissioner service, and through a simpler understanding of what the EDC can do for you when you're growing as a business, so that you're able to map out exactly how you're going to grow your business.
Perhaps there's even the possibility, whether it's a credit system or a tax-refund-based system, to encourage businesses to take on the additional cost of exploring an online service, whether it's e-commerce or simply digital advertising, or even if it's moving some of their human resources and finance systems that are currently pieces of paper in the back office into an online environment that makes their life that much simpler and allows them to conduct their business that much more simply.
I'll give you a slight anecdote, since I was in Charlottetown in October. As someone from central Canada, I landed and wanted to do something interesting. I picked up my phone and immediately looked at where I was going to get a dinner at a place not in Charlottetown. That's a perfect example if you're a business in October in a tourist-based region where you have very deep seasonality. I could tell from the online listings via my phone what companies had websites and were still open on October 14 to serve me dinner and give me a tour.