Let me tell you about the Canada Youth Business Foundation.
CYBF is an organization that helps young entrepreneurs by providing them with funding up to $15,000 start-up capital. What's interesting about the program is it also provides mandatory mentorship for those young entrepreneurs for a two-year period. That matching process helps young entrepreneurs not only start their businesses but then grow their businesses. Historically 40% of the loans that were issued by the CYBF were issued to women.
The Canada small business financing program, as I mentioned, is a 50-year-old program that actually uses the financial institutions' financing abilities by providing essentially loan guarantees. Many jurisdictions have loan guarantee programs, and ours is called the Canada small business financing program.
The CSBFP has assisted more than 142,000 businesses since 1999 with a total of $1 billion a year in support.
Last, I want to mention the directory of women-owned businesses.