Thanks, Chair.
And thanks to our witnesses for being here.
Actually, I want to provide a little bit of a preamble on how impressed I think each committee member is here by the strength of co-ops. We've been receiving a very positive and cohesive message from all of the different-sized co-ops involved in all of different sectors of the economy. The growth has been impressive. I'm thinking of growth in balance sheets. I'm thinking of growth in assets. I'm thinking of growth in membership. We now have 9,000 co-ops, with 18-million members across Canada. So it's very encouraging.
Of course, I think Mathieu mentioned that a co-op is more than twice as likely to survive an economic downturn or difficult economic circumstance as a business, which is also quite remarkable when you think about it.
I just want to touch on what Madame Blanchette-Lamothe was talking about because there was tough talk about the CDI, or the co-op development initiative. Just to correct the record, it wasn't cut, it wasn't cancelled. It just wasn't renewed. It's important to understand the difference because it's been running for two terms of five years, and it simply reached its natural conclusion at the end of its second term of five years. So it simply expired, like all programming does, especially when it's achieved its goals. This is, I think, what we have heard, as a committee, in terms of co-ops. They have grown. We had a witness here just yesterday, I think, saying that in Quebec over the last five years 595 new co-ops have entered the scene. That's astounding.
The challenge we have as government is that we find ourselves in a $23.5 billion deficit, which is roughly 8% to 10% of the revenues of government. This is a very important factor because difficult decisions must be made. I don't think anyone recommends running with a 10% deficit.
In fact, that is my question. I already know the answer, but I'll put the question to you, Mr. Marshall.
Do you operate at a 10% deficit? If you did, would your members demand that you rectify this situation, look at your expenses and balance that budget?