Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism. Last month, the Canadian Association for Independent Business published the results of a survey that it had done on business loans to businesses across the country. There was some alarming information that was reported, the main one being that although small businesses create all the jobs, there have been more loan applications turned down in the past fiscal year than in the year before. Many small businesses have gone under for that reason, they have no access to capital.
I would like to ask the Minister, there's no clear indication of what information was applied from the Northwest Territories, where small businesses are having difficulties in obtaining loans from our chartered banks.