Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. It is a very good one.
This is not a normal situation, as the Prime Minister would have us believe. It is far from it. The president of the Business Development Bank is indirectly an employee of parliament. BDC is a crown corporation, a government owned bank. The Prime Minister phoned the president of that bank and put pressure on him to give a loan to a friend who happens to own a hotel next to the Prime Minister's golf course.
If the hotel failed and he did not get the loan, the value of the golf course would obviously have diminished. This is far from a normal operation. I do not know of any members of the House who have that kind of clout, the opportunity to phone the president of the Business Development Bank and ask for those kinds of favours.
The president of the BDC, Mr. Beaudoin, did not like it either. It took two calls plus heavy lobbying at the Prime Minister's residence to make it happen. Even then the interest rates were put at 25% because he considered it a very high risk loan, and well he should have. Two and a half years after getting the loan no payments had been made. That is why the BDC president advised that there should be foreclosure. As soon as that happened the bank manager lost his job.