Industry committee  Unfortunately, the labour shortage is here for good. People over 55 account for 21% of Canadian workers. That means they will be retiring in the next 10 years. So unfortunately, we are having to deal with the problem represented by an aging population. That is why we encourage b

Industry committee  The highest level of job vacancies is in the tech industry, and it's not because the industry is not performing well; it's just because there's a very strong demand. The sector has been growing very rapidly. Manufacturing is looking for people in some regions. People can hire tho

Industry committee  I think, in general, there are not that many who are moving to the States. There are many companies that are opening an operation in the States because it's often easier for a Canadian company do to business in the United States if they have a place of business, so we see that a

Industry committee  We can provide you with a study that we did, and you will see the numbers of business acquisitions of the two countries.

Industry committee  Karen, do you want to take this one? I think you have more knowledge than I do on this one.

Industry committee  Okay. We have a venture capital fund that is one of the largest in the country and we help a lot of new entrepreneurs with creative ideas. It's through our venture capital fund.

Industry committee  In the report you mention, we say that the main solution to this shortage is to invest in technology and automation. We also say that businesses have to look at the labour market differently. The unemployment rate in Canada is 5.3%, but for young people under 25, it is more than

Industry committee  We ask for guarantees in some cases, but we ordinarily ask for them less than the private institutions. Certainly, we have greater flexibility when it comes to the loan, but we try to grant loans to businesses that have riskier projects so that we are complementary to the financi

Industry committee  I don't think so. I don't know, Karen, if you have more to comment on that. I don't think it was....

Industry committee  I don't have the definition in front of me, but it is pretty broad. The objective is to help businesses adopt new technologies. The projects can be very simple, for example, setting up a website or making it transactional. They can also be complex, for example, automating a proce

Industry committee  Yes, we have an office there.

Industry committee  We'll be happy to provide you with the figures, but I can assure you that we are very active in rural areas. In fact, we are more active in those areas than in the big cities, and we are also very active for small and medium enterprises.

Industry committee  Right now it's 75,000.

Industry committee  I would say it's 99%—

Industry committee  —for SMEs.