Mr. Speaker, as a small manufacturer in the furniture business with about a 20 per cent success rate, the banks were very used to the manufacturing success in my business. That is the best example I can give.
Every business has a degree of risk, particularly manufacturing. I empathize with the member's comments in terms of the banking system and how the access to capital for small businesses is not forthcoming in the way we would like to see. However to single out this one industry with a bill wherein the rules of engagement afterward are not specified is not doing our homework.
As to who should do the refereeing, I gave an earlier example of federal bureaucrats administering the export development program. They are not insiders. That is my concern with having Telefilm Canada be the arbiters. They have all the baggage of the established cultural industry in Canada and will be potentially blind to new regional development or new blood that wants to come into the industry.
It was apparent in the briefing on the bill that this program would go to the strong and the established. It was not to go to fledglings or new entrants into the business. Who has the biggest concern with access to capital? I would say the opposite to the apparent intent of the results of the bill.
My suggestion on who should referee the whole process would be someone not within that group but someone perhaps associated with the regular bureaucracy that is used to this type of standard setting and this type of allotment.