Absolutely.
My riding is mostly rural, although my experiences with cooperatives within the riding probably don't touch very much that is rural. My businesses bank with a local credit union. Libro is very successful in southern Ontario and does very many community projects, and they are a very successful cooperative credit union. We keep celebrating 100th or 110th anniversaries of our mutual credit unions, our mutual insurance companies, so they've been around for a long time.
I've been involved in my business...even inside the businesses I own some franchises that use cooperatives within them, from a purchasing point of view. The owners get together and of course reduce costs by cooperatively purchasing...or purchasing advertising. My experience with cooperatives is a bit different from what most people across Canada think. When they hear the word “cooperatives”, they think of agriculture, they think of rural Canada, and it's been a very successful model there also.
You suggested earlier that the programs that are available to businesses in Canada are available to cooperative businesses. Rather than create a niche that's only about cooperatives, can you tell us about some of the successes that have happened with cooperative businesses taking advantage...? I think, Mr. Connell, you mentioned a couple of cooperative businesses that are treated in our economic development agencies, or through Industry Canada, or through others, and they've been very successful by taking advantage of other government programs.