Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Sometimes.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We'd be happy to submit something. I'm sure Credit Union Central of Canada could help me with that, because they hear this all the time.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  No.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  No, it's not about changing the standards. It's about adapting the standards to the complexity and the size of the organization.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Our policies are very similar to the policies of the banks in terms of when and under what circumstances we would intervene on a loan. It's how we apply the policy that's different. You know, our last wish is to actually foreclose or to call a loan. We'll do most everything we

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  You're getting to a level that I'm probably ill-qualified to comment on. I can certainly get you the information.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We do. Most of it is indirect, because we share it with what we call our Central, which is Central 1. We share all of those stories. We have a pretty open book to credit unions in terms of our policies, our bylaws, and anything they want of that sort. There's a credit union in to

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Educating consumers has always been one of the core principles of cooperatives. The degree of focus has ebbed and flowed over the years, but Alterna finds that educating consumers has a strong payback for us. We've particularly seen it in the micro-lending program. We see it in t

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think anything the federal government can do to support the development of cooperatives is in the best interests of Canadians. It's a proven business model. It's an alternative to the public company. It's not a replacement but an alternative to the public company. I've yet to

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think the credit union system in Canada has demonstrated that it's a very strong set of institutions. We're just as regulated as the banks. Some of the standards aren't quite where banks' standards are yet, but the reality is that our business is pretty bread and butter. If y

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We do pretty big loans. Alterna has done loans in partnership with Vancity, through its Citizens Bank and through Concentra Financial in Regina, and that sort of thing. We can do reasonably large loans. They aren't $500 million loans, but $30 million to $50 million loans are no

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We work it out. That's our competitive advantage with the banks. We try not to send people from pillar to post to organize their own.... We try to work as a one-stop.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  As I said, we package microfinancing under our community economic development effort, and we are in the process of trying to expand that. With regard to microfinance, I think the point in the report is that we currently have three people doing it. If we had the capacity to put ni

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I don't think that co-ops would be more disadvantaged than others, all other things being equal. Anyone has to come with a good business case and a good sense of what they're undertaking. I have to admit that Alterna doesn't do a whole lot of that at this point in time. We don't

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  It probably depends on the level of security they're putting up against the loan. At the end of the day, it's easy to give money away. It's really, really hard to get it back. No financial institution wants to realize on security. Most credit unions focus the majority of their l