Thank you.
Thank you so much, minister, and team, for joining us this morning.
My husband and I are small business owners. Over the decades, we certainly understand the commitment and requirements involved in running a small business, as well as running a family and working full time outside of those small businesses.
The awareness piece is something that I heard consistently in terms of the program. EDC and BDC have often come before our committee and presented and done a phenomenal job. As you've mentioned in your great work there, minister, 99% of our businesses are small businesses. In rural areas, getting access to the services becomes a little trickier, as well as the distance to go to the regional offices.
Within your strategy, are you considering reaching out to the regional chambers of commerce, the CBDCs, maybe Startup Canada, the regional development corporations and even the Canadian banks? Many small businesses will go to a bank first. As you well know, banks are typically risk-adverse, so even if the banks have an option to send them someplace else.....
The other piece I would encourage, and I hope is part of your strategy, is talking to post-secondary institutions, the business programs, either undergraduate or graduate programs, and making the students more aware but also explaining how they might be able to partner through a program like the export partnership program with small businesses. Thank you.