Thank you.
It's interesting, of course, that we've had some discussions now this morning about the Business Development Bank of Canada. That's an institution, of course, that does a lot of lending to small and medium enterprises, start-ups, and small businesses. But what I'd perhaps like, through the chair, to ask the analysts is whether cooperatives have access to that money in the same way that a sole proprietorship or a traditional business, because that could be one of the barriers. When we speak about cooperatives being misunderstood, and the education required around it, they are a viable alternative business model. And that needs to be recognized throughout our financial systems, as well as in the general public, so that more people perhaps look to that avenue when they're looking to start up a small business or to engage in community endeavours.
In community economic development, especially in rural areas, co-ops have been critical in fulfilling that need, and the Alberta gas co-ops would be an example of that.
Mr. Ward, I noticed right at the end of one of your statements a few minutes ago you spoke about the broadness of cooperatives and how perhaps they should be moved over to Industry. As we know, they're currently under the purview of Agriculture, and that made a lot of sense when cooperatives were first founded. They were largely in agriculture areas, but we've heard from several witnesses now that perhaps while there is still a very strong agricultural component within many co-ops, there are many other cooperatives that have outgrown that. They also feel that Industry would be the appropriate place for them to fall under.
Could you perhaps expand upon your statement earlier in regard to why you think that change should be made?