Finance committee  Thank you very much, that is greatly appreciated.

Finance committee  Our role is clearly to try to find the gaps. So we try to work for sectors that are less accessible to the private market. For example, we know that the tourism industry has been hard hit by the current crisis. So we are working very hard to help that industry. The manufacturing

Finance committee  There are two parts to my answer. Analyses clearly prove that we take on more risk than other financial institutions. We do benchmarking, and we can easily prove that the risks we take on are greater. As for paperwork, we try to keep it to a minimum. To be frank, our technologi

Finance committee  That is an excellent question, and I must admit that I had not thought about it. Usually, we are the ones who must be accountable. I would like to think about it before I answer your question. You know, we at the Business Development Bank of Canada are fairly independent, and th

Finance committee  The shareholder was kind enough to promise us additional capital so that we could do our work properly. Obviously, if the number of applications rises, as in the case of the Canadian Secured Credit Facility, then additional capital will be required. However, given what we have to

Finance committee  With great pleasure. The requirement is that our long-term return on equity be greater than our long-term cost of funds, which means that we've got to be showing a small profit. We're not in the business of maximizing profit. That's what financial institutions are for. We're ther

Finance committee  Yes, I'd be happy to. Clearly this was not an area of expertise for BDC, so the first thing we had to do was acquire the expertise, both by hiring people who had the relevant expertise and by getting the best consulting firms in the area. Once that was done, we had to decide on

Finance committee  The existing programs and—we hope very soon—the guarantee program for lines of credit are, of course, accessible to all businesses, including those in the forestry sector. Currently, our portfolio, which is technically defined by Industry Canada as being part of the forestry sec

Finance committee  That is correct. I don't know their number. However, I believe that will get reported, because I believe the finance department was trying to track that.

Finance committee  That is technically correct.

Finance committee  Mr. McCallum, that is correct, but to be added to that are the dollars from the financial institutions--because this is a program between all three parties--that they should be reporting. I suspect they'll be reporting that in the report to Parliament at some point.

Finance committee  No, CSCF is our program, and the formal commitment letters went out May 15. The behaviour should be changing as we speak. The companies are building the various asset-backed securities, and as soon as they submit them, they'll get the cheques.

Finance committee  That's as of May 31.

Finance committee  Again, it is and it isn't. The key is to change the behaviour of the auto dealers and the equipment dealers. At this point in time, having received on May 15 a letter from BDC formally committing to writing a $1 billion or $1.5 billion cheque, those companies should be, as we spe

Finance committee  That's correct.