Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you to all the witnesses for coming in today via video conference and in person.
It was interesting to hear the witnesses this morning talk about the role the federal government can play in helping new cooperatives start up and in helping with mentoring and training so that they know what they're doing so that they'll be successful. We think that was a product offered through the CDI and that we would have liked to have seen renewed and possibly expanded or modified to meet some of the growing needs.
I just want to commend the Alberta Gas Co-ops for bringing high-speed Internet access to the rural areas. That is absolutely the greatest barrier to business and economic prosperity that rural regions face. Congratulations, and keep up the good work.
I wanted to actually speak to Assiniboine.
First off, near the end of your presentation, Nigel, you were talking about two of the barriers for smaller and early start-up co-ops. One is internal capacity, and of course, the second is assets. That's where you talked about federal government capacity-building grants, potentially. Perhaps you could expand on that.
As well, a really important issue for me, being in an urban area, is that I have over 600 co-op housing units, and many of those buildings are in that 30- to 35-year range, where they're facing some rather hefty infrastructure needs and are having troubles refinancing their mortgages. It's exactly what you were saying about the issues to do with CMHC and perhaps excessive penalties.
Now, I believe that the co-ops all expect to pay some form of penalty, but I think they're looking for middle ground. Do you have any suggestions with respect to how we can work with CMHC to get that done?