Government Operations committee  No, they were not imposed on us. Like any request for a major event, an organizing committee gets together. An analysis is done and an opinion is provided to the minister who decides…

Government Operations committee  It happens for any public policy initiative, or something that requires a public policy approach or funding. It is the same process. Opinions are provided to the minister and the minister discusses it in cabinet.

Government Operations committee  No. Sport Canada comes under the Department of Canadian Heritage. Canadian Heritage has various mandates: heritage is one mandate; culture is another and official languages is another. The Minister of Canadian Heritage is also the Minister of Official Languages. Sport Canada is part of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Government Operations committee  I am happy to help, sir.

Government Operations committee  It is fair to say that I have a good knowledge of national museums. Various museums in Canada have applied under our programs. We are talking about thousands and thousands of applications. At this stage, I do not remember this one. That does not mean that we did not get an application.

Government Operations committee  René will give you some details about that.

Government Operations committee  As one of the reductions announced in last year's budget as part of the effort to reduce the deficit, the International Expositions Program was cancelled. It was a program used either to prepare a bid or to do related work. It was also used to fund bid committees for international expositions.

Government Operations committee  About $8.85 million annually.

Government Operations committee  As you know, the federal government is contributing $500 million for infrastructure, legacies, government services, the reports we receive and those we are part of. Because of the auditing that is being done, everything is evolving correctly at this stage.

Government Operations committee  The Canada Interactive Fund was created to make it possible for organizations to promote new ideas, in terms of their activities, by using the new media. The fund was set up several years ago, but unfortunately the type of application was not what had been hoped. In fact, there were not a huge amount of innovations at all.

Government Operations committee  We presented the minister with options for the programs that were giving the least convincing results. Against that background, given the effort that had to be made to reduce the deficit, choices had to be made between the programs that were not giving us the results and those that were giving us good results and that we wanted to protect.

Government Operations committee  As you know, Sport Canada is a part of Canadian Heritage. The Minister of State (Sport) is one of the ministers within Canadian Heritage. The goal is certainly to encourage youth to be active. We also have a tradition of hosting large events and promoting excellence in sport. The Pan American Games really are a large event that we are hosting; they are a way to promote sporting excellence and to motivate young people to want to emulate the model.

Government Operations committee  The maximum contribution from the Government of Canada is $500 million for the three envelopes I mentioned. It will not be more than that.

Government Operations committee  Those are two different things. Let us start with the Pan American Games. We have a program for hosting major international events like the Olympic Games, the Pan Am and Parapan American Games, or a world athletics championships like we had in Moncton a few years ago. We have a program that allows us to help all of them.

Government Operations committee  The CRTC, of course, is an organization that has both revenue generation and appropriation. The appropriation is quite small compared with what they have in terms of revenues. In relation to your specific question on interventions, I'll ask my colleague to answer you.