Mr. Speaker, I am not outraged by the fact that the hon. parliamentary secretary is taking this opportunity to brag about the program. He is right.
As we say in Quebec, we do not turn up our noses on a good program. As my hon. colleague just indicated, many Quebeckers are using the program and want to be able to keep on using it, because it is a fundamental multipurpose program.
However, the program is not a cure-all. The statistics used by the hon. member do not invalidate the argument we made. What I was suggesting earlier is that the government guarantees on loans made by the banks to small business should be for businesses that otherwise would not have access to them through any other program. We would probably get the same statistics, but with the following difference. Instead of having banks use the program with all the guarantees currently provided by the government, help would be given to businesses who otherwise would not get assistance from any other program.
Yes, there are some shortcomings. The parliamentary secretary knows that these issues were discussed at length in committee. For existing businesses, there is the whole issue of working capital to consider. Several businesses have mentioned it. However, it is not addressed in this bill, because, since the government has decided not to support our amendment, working capital is not eligible under this program, and that is unfortunate. It is very unfortunate indeed, because working capital is very helpful during tough times, as the parliamentary secretary knows. It is crucial to be able to face tough times.