Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The legislation would need to be changed. We have tried to do so on a number of occasions in the past. Describing the ins and outs would take a whole day, I think. The process is political and very complex. In short, to answer your question, we should change the legislation, but

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Right now, we are working in Quebec only, but our company is structured in such a way that we will eventually be able to provide services outside the borders of Quebec, across Canada. This is a pilot project, but it has still helped raise $25 million in capital so far. The $25 mi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In First Nations communities, I have certainly seen forestry worker cooperatives that were doing well. I’m not saying that the cooperative model is the most widely used, but perhaps its advantage is having features that are similar in a way to the values of First Nations. First

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's exactly the game we have been in since 2005. So far we have raised close to $25 million from private investors and also from institutional investors. I can tell you that I could make a call this morning and get $50 million in my bank account, but we have to offer savings p

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With Wendake, we have certainly created a market. The community has a lot of owner-occupiers. Those houses are also in demand. The owner-occupiers who own a home with excellent equity may well be able to use the value of their property to get commercial loans, using the house the

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Genest-Jourdain. In terms of commercial loans, we have been working with the Native Commercial Credit Corporation, which has been in existence since 1992. We have issued more than $60 million in loans so far. But our loss rate on the loans is less than 1%. We have

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. We take our inspiration from the Huron-Wendat First Nation in Wendake, located close to Quebec City. That model inspires us because, in the 1970s, the community of Wendake was quite poor and the houses were small. People took two and three years to bu

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Richards, members of Parliament, Chief Moody, and speakers, thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about access to capital and some solutions that we have developed over time. If you don't mind, I will continue in French in order to be more