Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would add that the Boys and Girls Club has developed a national program called the newcomer youth advancement program that is helping support our clubs to reach out to newcomer youth and to help the clubs be skilled at helping young people integrate. Over the last three years we have seen 2,750 youth in nine locations across the country.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. We're grateful for the opportunity to present to you today. Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada supports and encourages children and youth to achieve great futures. We have 96 member clubs. We see 200,000 children and youth through our doors each year and we have service locations in 625 local communities.

Justice committee  I don't have anything to add to that.

Justice committee  Sure, Mr. Chair. I don't have the privilege of working directly with young people, myself, but the clubs do a tremendous amount of work, as you mentioned. They really consider all the programs and the support that young people need to succeed, take advantage of more opportunities and contribute to their country in a positive way.

Justice committee  This is something Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada has been advocating for several years, since before my time there. We would be looking for the federal and provincial governments to invest 5% of the amount they invest in the criminal justice system. From the reports that have been made over the years, I think that would be the amount we'd be looking for.

Justice committee  The gang prevention fund, from what I understand, is allocated to a group for three to five years. Regardless of it achieving wonderful results, the funding after that time is switched to another group. To me that's a barrier to effective programs, which could be changed if a program could demonstrate its success.

Justice committee  Thank you. Let me start by saying that we appreciate MP Parm Gill's efforts to keep children and youth safe from gangs and are happy that the Boys and Girls Clubs were included in consultations on this bill. We are not opposed to Bill C-394. Our concerns are mostly related to the need for enhanced prevention efforts, which we understand the committee and Mr.

Finance committee  It's certain that, in the world we are living in, we need a little bit of everything. We would like to see more investments in prevention. Research shows that this approach is really worthwhile and is the appropriate choice in terms of the economy. Regarding Bill C-10, we are still asking for investments in prevention, as we have mentioned.

Finance committee  We talked about that because Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada is part of Campaign 2000. So we support the objective to eliminate poverty. There are significant connections between poverty levels and educational achievement. It is very a well-known fact that, when students are less successful, they have more difficulty getting jobs, and the jobs they do get are insecure and less well-paid.

Finance committee  We included that issue because it's a big concern for us. There are major discrepancies between the educational achievements of young aboriginals and those of other Canadians. As members of an organization that serves that population, we are very concerned by this reality. Talking about it is an act of solidarity with aboriginal organizations working on making real changes.

Finance committee  I am not front line, so I can't speak to that, and I haven't heard clubs talking about the effect of the mandatory minimum. I have heard clubs talk a lot about the importance of prevention and the difference they can see it makes. The youth they see who are involved in gangs or in difficult situations most often are youth who have been traumatized.

Finance committee  Our hundred clubs are all independent. I don't have a full picture of everyone who has received funding from the Skills Link program. I know that clubs talk about it a lot. As to the summer jobs programs, many of them rely on these programs. They train young people. For instance, the Winnipeg Boys and Girls Clubs run a summer learning program.

Finance committee  I saw that there have been enhancements to these programs and a commitment to increasing it by $50 million for two years. I'm wondering, after these two years, what the projects are for sustaining it at this level, because I don't think we'll be resolving the issue of youth employment.

Finance committee  That would be a good start.

Finance committee  Yes. I also saw that in the last call for proposals most of the funding was going to the career side. I want to make sure that we don't forget about the skills link. For sure there's a long way to go for those young people, but we need every one of them to be ready and employed.