Mr. Speaker, I understand where the hon. member is coming from. Since we made changes in the 1995 proposal, the objective was to make the SBLA program more and more self-sufficient.
The hon. member knows, coming from western Canada, that the four western provinces have used the SBLA to a very high extent, in fact more than any other part of Canada.
By using the SBLA program, what in effect we are doing is more and more new and young businesses are into it and especially under three years. As I mentioned earlier, almost 60% of the SBL applicants are under the three year mark as firms and almost 40% are starting companies.
The objective there is to continue to push the banks, which I know the hon. member does in the industry committee, to loan to small businesses. I think we both have the same objective, more money available for firms, especially the start-up firms, and more jobs created in Canada.