The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) is a Crown corporation dedicated to providing financial and consulting solutions that meet the needs of small businesses. It was created in 1995 by an Act of Parliament that streamlined and modernized the structure and mandate of its predecessor, the Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB). The purpose of the BDC remained essentially the same as that of the FBDB: to support Canadian entrepreneurship by providing financial and management services. The principal changes in the new Act involved transforming the role of the BDC so that the Bank would be a complementary source of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing, and giving the Bank the power to provide financial and management services jointly with other institutions.
Section 36 of the Business Development Bank of Canada Act states that five years after it comes into force, and every 10 years afterward, the designated Minister the Minister of Industry must have a review of the provisions and operations of the Act undertaken in consultation with the Minister of Finance. Within one year after the review is undertaken, the Minister of Industry must submit a report to Parliament on the review. As such, the Minister of Industry respectfully submits to Parliament this report summarizing the results of the research and consultations undertaken in support of the review. Once the report is tabled, the BDC Act stipulates that it must be reviewed by a parliamentary committee.