Canadian Heritage committee  It's very problematical because changes in municipal administration can change the situation from black to white. We saw that in Timmins. At one point, we had a municipal council that was very open, and we worked on a number of issues. We worked very hard on a tourism file in pa

Canadian Heritage committee  Starting in 1993, we had no more permanent staff. Try to imagine what it means to run an organization, whatever it may be, without a full-time secretary, without a general manager or without a full-time project officer. We work during the day and in the evening we try to hold mee

Canadian Heritage committee  That's because we're farther north, three and a half hours from Sudbury.

Canadian Heritage committee  In the north, towns are always 150, 200 or 300 kilometres from one another.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, we've done that on a number of projects. For example, in the case of the Garderie Clin D'oeil project, we worked with the school board people and with the various women's groups because it was they who had this need. It's complex and tragic when you live in a minority settin

Canadian Heritage committee  There's no magic solution. Consider the example of the Garderie Clin D'oeil in Timmins. We did all the work. We did the feasibility studies, we stated the community's needs, we marketed it, and we set it up in a secondary school, which, at the time, was the largest secondary scho

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely, and I understand you perfectly well. We believe that the organizations need basic funding because the work that remains to be done is manpower training and economic diversification work. For that, we need quite strong Francophone communities to fight assimilation. I'

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't think so. We don't have any direct link with the Government of Quebec or with any program whatever. I heard that Benoît Pelletier was changing that.

Canadian Heritage committee  He just talked about it. That's something new, that didn't exist before.

Canadian Heritage committee  It remains to be seen exactly what there is in Mr. Pelletier's proposal. He has good intentions, he has a desire for openness, for working together, but, in concrete terms, it remains to be seen. We'll have to try it.

Canadian Heritage committee  In my opinion, it was 1997-1998. Our budget fell to $30,358.

Canadian Heritage committee  It took us by surprise. From one year to the next, we couldn't foresee it, because you have to apply for grants and justify every penny that's spent. There was no way to predict what would happen in that regard. Let's be serious, my friends: what could we get with $30,000 in 1998

Canadian Heritage committee  If you would allow me to just finish on that, that's why our message today is to skip the big bureaucratic creatures, if I can use that word, because basically the problem is that the money stays in Ottawa and Toronto and doesn't percolate up north. If you deal directly with the

Canadian Heritage committee  That program's been cancelled, hasn't it?

Canadian Heritage committee  Indeed, I had the pleasure of working with Guy Lizotte at the community radio station in Hearst, Ontario. Radio de l'Épinette noir is still going very well. It's firmly rooted in its community.