Yes. We have established inside Alterna a community economic development group, if you will, as a line of business, and microfinance is part of that. Microfinance was developed by the old Metro Credit Union over a decade ago, and it was focused on helping people get off social assistance. It very specifically focused on people who are underserved and disadvantaged in the community.
We do two or three things that I think differentiate our approach from other people's. First is that we require them to get education on how to run a business. Many of the micro-lending programs you see across the country do not require that, and as a result, they have much higher failure rates. We require them to go through that. Most of that is actually training sponsored by the federal government. So thanks for that.
The second thing we require them to do is to do a business case. Many of these people have never done that. We help them through that. We mentor them through that. But they have to put a business case, because at some point in time, if they're successful, they're going to grow out of the micro-lending side of things, and they're going to have to sit with one of the old-fashioned bankers, or maybe one of the new-fashioned bankers. They're going to have to convince them that their business is viable. So they need to know how to manage the business.
The third thing we do is mentor them. We actually, in many ways, hold their hands through much of it. I think that's probably what differentiates us most.
The other thing for Alterna is that Ontario is one of the few provinces where there isn't any government subsidy for microfinance, so any losses we have on the program we eat.
It's a relatively small program, but it's effective. It's an important piece of our overall community economic development, but it's not the only piece. Overall, the overall piece is profitable. This particular piece, in terms of our income statement, we try to keep breaking even.