Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for coming.
Mr. Malli, during your last statement you said that we should be looking to other areas for solutions. Of course in your opening remarks you mentioned other social enterprises and co-ops, in Italy for instance.
Thank you for being a sponsor of the Imagine 2012 summit happening in Quebec City. I only wish that we as a committee were going to that so that we, ourselves, would be able to look to other areas for solutions. There are many solutions available in the world and we should be looking at them to improve our cooperative sector here in Canada.
I want to discuss Vancity, which is largely contained within urban areas, and the unique needs that urban areas have compared with the different needs that often exist in rural areas, even as they might parallel.
Now, with residential cooperatives, of course many of them that have been in existence for a long time are dealing with some infrastructure needs, whether it be new roofs, replacement of pipes, buying new boilers, or other things like that. What kinds of services does Vancity offer to co-ops that are looking to perhaps blend and extend mortgages or to seek new financing?