Finance committee  We have seen growth in areas that have previously not been our main areas, B.C., for instance. One of the more exciting channels of growth for BDC in the last three years has been our online lending. We've gone from doing about 1,000 loans online to 5,000 in the last year. It's a

Finance committee  Thank you, and good evening. I'll just add that with respect to women entrepreneurs specifically, we've looked at some data and found that the majority of women-owned businesses tend to be smaller. They grow more slowly and there are fewer of them. When you look at the majority

Industry committee  When our mandate was changed in 1995 from lender of last resort to complementary lender, Treasury Board said we ought to be sustainable over the economic cycle.

Industry committee  I'll just add that within our law, our eligibility criteria are such that we have to finance viable businesses. I'm paraphrasing, but section 14 talks about an entrepreneur having a stake in the business that we finance and various other eligibility criteria that make it such tha

Industry committee  Yes, we partner with the CFDCs. There are about 270, and we have agreements with about 230 of those, and it's one of the key ways that we try to access the rural markets.

Industry committee  That's a really good point. For many of the partners that we partner with, the whole idea of mentorship is really emphasized. We've had a partnership with Futurpreneur Canada, for instance, since about 2008, and in order for us to do financing with them, we do a 2:1 ration of fin

Industry committee  I believe we now have about 400 external consultants on our roster across Canada, but I don't have the ratio.

Industry committee  We'd have to get you that number.

Industry committee  It would be fewer than 100.

Industry committee  Well, what we found is that the very small companies don't necessarily have access to these kinds of consulting offerings. It's part of the reason, in fact, that you see the losses, or what we call the “investment” into this business. We don't fully cost-recover all the—

Industry committee  We'd have to go into the actual offering. We have invested quite a bit, for instance, in our operational efficiency business. It's very relevant to manufacturing. We go into a company, and we'll give them advice on how to improve the operation. We're getting very, very positive

Industry committee  It really isn't just a reselling of someone else's services. We have invested in the offering—

Industry committee  Absolutely.

Industry committee  Thank you. We call it BDC Advisory, and it is structured around three main areas. The first one is more of a traditional consulting business, one where we do one-off mandates. Basically, the themes are companies that want to increase their revenue, want to improve their effici