Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the member's statements about Bill C-21. I think he made a point in the remarks to the effect that this is not a subsidy.
I could not help but think about who it was who might be receiving this subsidy or for whom it was not a subsidy. It could not very well be for the applicant of the small business loan but it could be the bank.
It seems to me that one of the discoveries that the auditor general made was that somewhere between 30% and more recently up to 46% of the loans actually granted under the SBLA program would have been granted without the provisions of the SBLA.
If that is the case, that means 46% of the loans actually granted to business were guaranteed by the Government of Canada, loans that these institutions would have lent to the individuals anyway. Therefore, rather than the bank being on the hook and taking the risk, it is the taxpayer who is taking the risk up to 85% of the principal value of these loans.
I ask the member whether he could please clarify for whom this is not a subsidy.