Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the hon. member for Bonaventure—Gaspé—Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Pabok for his question. We can see that he is already very comfortable with this matter and has probably had more business experience than I.
This is not a subject of discussion every day, but I do know that this is an Achilles' heel for many businesses in difficulty because they have, let us say, “misused” their working capital. This fund, which should have been used to pay off their debts after taking into consideration the money coming in as accounts receivable, is sometimes used to make investments. The banks and financial advisers have a very important role to play in this regard.
It is a question of education. Perhaps it is overly optimistic to think so, but it might be good for lenders to use the SBLA to encourage entrepreneurs to make more use of industrial commissioners, more use of the services of the Quebec department of industry and commerce, or those of Human Resources Development Canada, which has excellent financial advisers. These people can guide entrepreneurs' choices and orientations as required.
In my former job, I saw someone expand his plant using his working capital. This was probably done out of ignorance, not bad faith, out of enthusiasm on the part of an entrepreneur in a rush to get things moving. People do not have time to fill out all sorts of forms, to ask advice, to find out whether the financial institutions have any funds set aside for this purpose. Care must be taken not to be too hasty, because that is often the way to get into trouble.
In my opinion, there is no magic recipe. Progress must be slow, must involve education. Before decisions are made that could affect the survival of a business or its rate of expansion, the right advice must be given and the right choices made.
We cannot go any further. I invite the people at Industry to look at the fact that working capital will always be a very sensitive aspect of a business' operations. If the government can help employers, entrepreneurs, to find solutions or to feel more secure about this concept, this will be good for our communities.