Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that question, Ms. McPherson. For clarification, we don't lend to individual.... We just lend to the first nations bands. We operate under the act. Our eligible borrowers are only Indian Act bands at this time. We've noticed that a lot of the infrastructure the fi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Schmale. That's a very good question. When we are lending monies to a first nation, we are always collecting information on the economic impact. So far, with our $900 million that we've lent out, the economic impact we see is, at a minimum, about $2 billion. We kn

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I could add to that—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can give you a couple of examples. We had a first nation near Vancouver, in the heart of Chilliwack in British Columbia, that borrowed money—and they used their own source revenues to support it—to build a sports field for their community, a real running track, change rooms and

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If they are operating.... Well, you can look at Enoch Cree. They operate a casino. They also have commercial property they lease out. They also have a gas bar. They have a number of different initiatives. It's where they have control of the operations. In some cases, first nation

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When it was first announced it became really clear to us, because we received calls from our borrowing members that they were falling through the cracks. Some of their employees couldn't access the $2,000 a month. Also, the wage subsidy was where there was the biggest impact. I t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For this year, and especially with the recent announcement, we can meet our obligations. If COVID-19 goes to 18 months, as was initially forecast, we would definitely start to experience some problems in the second year. A first nation that relies on a lot of own-source revenue,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In terms of what we do with our process, when a first nation borrows with us, they aren't actually determining for what purposes they would like to use the loan. It has to meet a certain program eligibility. It could be social development or economic development. A lot of the bor

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I played drums.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's why I became a CPA.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. Richard Van Camp is from my community.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's not so much under the model we're working on, because we are trying to get first nations to get into managing wealth. Our communities need wealth, right?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We don't have enough in our communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Why, sure.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Arnold. That's a very good question. The best return we see on the investments, the money the first nations have borrowed from us, is from alternative energy, anything in regulated resources. Dare I say a pipeline, because they are regulated and they bring a retur