Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That would apply to certain applications, but not all loan applications would affect the environment. Where there is an application for a convenience store and gas bar, it would require an environmental assessment report.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In some respects it's beginning to affect it. We have one AFI at the moment that, as Lucy mentioned, has issued bonds. The proceeds of those bonds have been used to finance infrastructure, and I think they've done some housing. Does that answer your question?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. In terms of increasing the capital base, it's going to be particularly important to attract private capital. We have working groups established that are made up of general managers of AFIs and representatives of AANDC who are in the process of dealing with that issue. We wou

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Some of the discussion we've had in the working groups I referred to earlier with the AFI GMs and AANDC staff deal with that issue. We're looking at revamping some existing programming that is available now to assist, in that regard, in leveraging capital. In respect of some of

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think we've progressed far enough that they're sharing the concept right now and are trying to work through it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The loan loss reserve that has been set up hasn't been used by AFIs. It has been used, to some extent, by the mainstream.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't have precise information. It's hard to get. One of the AFIs did some research about a year ago and determined that it was about $5 million at that stage.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The gross loan portfolio is $238 million, and we feel we can take it up by $100 million.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The AFIs essentially lend to pre-bankable clients; they're high-risk clients located lots of times in remote communities where it's expensive to service, and doing those kinds of loans was the intent of AFIs when they were set up. The numbers Lucy quoted, and that you reflected

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The original model contemplated administration costs of 6% and a loan loss cost of 5%. You would charge 12% and would make a 1% profit. The administration cost is what's off base.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The training that's provided to community members comes from the AFI located in the community. Maybe in Sept-Îles it would be CDEM.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In Quebec City or other parts of the province it would be SOCCA. They would have specialized staff to assist with business plan development and training with respect to entrepreneurship.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, actually, there is a plan in place at the moment. In the past year, we introduced an extensive business services officer guide, almost like a manual, to assist them. About two or three years ago we had developed a business services officer training course, or an analyzing a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For the character types of loans that AFIs most often provide, there isn't adequate equity to secure the loans, or else it's very questionable or arguable. The level of experience in managing and operating a business is lacking. We compensate for it in that way: we'll take extra

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, and that's what drives the administrative costs up to 10%, which Kyle zeroed in on.