I'm sorry, but that call centre just doesn't exist. The businesses that were deemed ineligible had no one to answer their questions. That complaint was made on numerous occasions. Even the Minister of Small Business knows this is a problem.
I will repeat my question. Basically, what work has Accenture done?
No one here can convince me that financial institutions need assistance from Accenture to make $60,000 loans. No one here will believe that Accenture needs $146 million to help Canadian or Quebec financial institutions make $60,000 loans.
I'd like access to the contracts with Accenture since the Canada emergency business account was introduced, because we need to look at this more closely.
The businesses just didn't get an answer. They had no way find out more about the eligibility criteria.
In addition, this program was particularly poorly managed, especially toward the end. A very large number of businesses were asking for an extra year and were denied. This led to an insolvency rate not seen in 10 years and the number of bankruptcies in Canada shot up 41% in 2023.
Did we get our money's worth, given what we spent with Accenture to have it manage a program that was ultimately managed by private financial institutions, not EDC, and even less so by Accenture? I seriously doubt it.
Would you be willing to share the contracts between EDC and Accenture, at least since 2020 and since the Canada emergency business account was introduced?