It is true, it takes a long time. I would like to give the member for Trois-Rivières the opportunity to speak more on the notion of working capital in the management of our small businesses.
I have in the past headed a business assistance centre in the Gaspé. I have also worked in business. Insufficient working capital was primarily what prevented businesses from expanding so they could carry out their contracts. It is also one of the causes of bankruptcies, as I have been seen, because people used their working capital to acquire equipment like a new truck or a lift truck to speed up the handling of their merchandise.
People were working to improve their business, but they were forced to use working capital to make this sort of purchase.
We could expand SBLs to include working capital. In certain cases, instead of financing a business based on 85% of its assets bought as collateral, the government could finance them at the rate of 100%. The lender could give the borrower the following advice: “You are buying a lift truck because you want to increase sales and improve your bottom line. However, for this asset you are buying for, let us say, $100,000, should you not be borrowing $125,000, because you will have to wait a little longer for your accounts payable, because you will have more of them?”
This is an idea I put to you and I ask my colleague to expand on it a bit or to bring me back down to earth if I am dreaming.