Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Absolutely, and we do it regularly. The transaction I'm telling you about, the $10 million transaction that crossed my desk yesterday, is outside our safety zone. However, we think that the management team in place at that business will enable the company to succeed.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Mr. Bouchard, for us, the manufacturing sector includes all sectors, including, of course, wood and the forest sector. So a manufacturer is ultimately someone who makes a product that he can sell, something tangible. It's not a service; it's more of a product that you can touch.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Absolutely, Mr. Garneau. I won't speak for EDC but rather for BDC. There are some factors in this that have caught us a little off guard, that is to say that we had to position ourselves in order to have the ability to act. The BCAP program includes five components, as I mentioned a little earlier.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good morning. Thank you for inviting me. It is a pleasure to be here to tell you about what the Business Development Bank of Canada, BDC, is doing to make credit more readily available to Canadian entrepreneurs. Our support is both direct and indirect, and I'll be pleased to describe it to you.

International Trade committee  BDC, as my colleague was suggesting, is involved in the creation of companies. So we do, actually, venture capital. The business of venture capital is to commercialize research and development from university and other research labs in Canada. We are involved in the creation of companies, but we're also involved in the growth of these companies.

International Trade committee  Yes, we do. That's why we're engaged in discussion to see what would be the next level of cooperation. But as we speak, the representative of EDC in the field and our people are working together. We do refer business to EDC when we see the need with our SMEs, and we are engaged in discussion to actually collaborate even more.

International Trade committee  I will answer the first part of your question, and I will let Jacques answer the second part because the two business directions are very different. The venture capital companies in Jacques' group operate globally, for all intents and purposes, on the day they are formed. In our 6,000 companies -- of course, the number changes each year because we have new companies who leave us for all kinds of reasons -- we find a little of everything.

International Trade committee  That is an excellent question. In fact, the question has two parts. First of all, we have 600 people in the field, people who visit SMEs every day. Local people of influence work with us. At BDC, we do a lot of community work. We have 92 community offices. We work with people on-site.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. This is the first opportunity BDC has had to meet the members of this committee formally.

International Trade committee  It's pleasant. So thank you for allowing us a few minutes, actually, to share our story with all of you. We welcome your examination of the roles and responsibilities of the departments, agencies, and crown corporations that deliver our government support for entrepreneurs. We welcome any discussion and all ideas that will help us continue to meet our one goal: to make the most relevant, helpful contribution we can to the health of Canada's small and medium-sized businesses in Canada.