Industry committee  As I said in my opening remarks, we have a diagnostic tool now and we're launching it this week, BDC Small Business Week. That will enable entrepreneurs to ask, “How am I productive compared to my peers?” We worked with Statistics Canada and it took us three years to develop this tool.

Industry committee  One of the strategic vectors of BDC is to make our services available. We've opened a number of service centres. We have also developed a new way to do business with us. You can now go online and apply for a $50,000 loan. The ceiling is at $50,000. The hope is to move that up. So people can actually go online and access the financing that they need as a very small business.

Industry committee  In GTC, growth and transition capital, 90% of the transactions we do will be with another financial institution because we'll take the junior tranche. When there's a project, the financial institution or BDC will take the senior tranche, and we will take the junior tranche. In terms of the rest of the lending, often when there is a project, there will be an operating line of credit involved.

Industry committee  As I mentioned, we're seeing manufacturing as a growing sector for BDC. Twelve per cent is in manufacturing.

Industry committee  We have the numbers for the auto sector. We've been quite active with tool and die, particularly for a recession. Metal is a big sector. We do it as a supplier to the auto sector or as a supplier to the aerospace sector.

Industry committee  I'll ask Bill to speak to this. We looked at the ICT, and we tried very hard in the past four or five years to increase awareness of ICT. We had a three-pronged program: raising awareness, consideration, and adoption. It was a combination of the work that we're able to finance along with the advisory services.

Industry committee  I'll start, and I'll ask Ms. Susan Rohac to complement my answer. The reality is that the only thing we do is support entrepreneurs. We don't take deposits. We don't do lines of credit. We help through term lending, venture capital investments, and advice. We look at projects and look at how those projects are structured, and then we're able to price according to risk.

Industry committee  As I mentioned in my opening remarks, by statute you have to invest in or lend to a company with a high probability of success. In terms of return or success, you can benchmark against return on equity, which right now in the lending portfolio is about 7%. We're covering the cost of capital; we provide a retained earning; and we use that retained earning to do two things: send a dividend cheque to the government and reinvest in our ability to relend to the company.

Industry committee  That's correct.

Industry committee  The probability of default in manufacturing is a bit higher, particularly by the ones that are in high growth. It's a sector that has opportunity because of the export potential but it does have some stress in terms of portfolio. So there's more risk in that portfolio than we see in the rest of the portfolios.

Industry committee  We're seeing orders going up, and I think the export stats are showing that orders are going up. There are significant changes in the currency and the impact. In venture capital, we see evaluation being driven up or down based on the value. There's a reticence to hire for tomorrow.

Industry committee  We have committed in excess of $500 million to help the industry. Of course, we're not in the big exploration companies. Our portfolio is a combination of a lot of service companies servicing oil and gas and some of the smaller manufacturing plants. In growth and transition we've been able to provide some working capital in order for them to be able to weather the storm.

Industry committee  If we see strong weaknesses, in the same way we always respond when there's a crisis, we'll step in. We did that in the financial crisis in 2010. We stepped in significantly and increased our authorization by 53% across Canada at a time of crisis. For sure, we would step in.

Industry committee  It's a great question. The accelerator program is very much a process for young entrepreneurs to go through. They're followed for three to six months and sometimes even longer. When they graduate from that program, a convertible note program that BDC has developed allows us to invest in that company alongside angel investors.

Industry committee  Perfect.