Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Being in small business myself, having founded a small business in 1976, I had the misfortune of having to deal with financial institutions.
I have talked to many small business people. Every single one of them without a doubt-and the majority has seven or eight employees or less-is prepared to hire one or two employees if given access to capital. Instead of investing and putting their hard earned life savings on the line, they would like to invest through proper access to business loans to introduce new projects they have in mind.
If we could encourage small businesses to take the initiative on their own to put forth projects they have had on the backburner for many years, we would go a long way toward creating the jobs desperately needed in the country.