Human Resources committee  All projects are approved by the minister.

Human Resources committee  It is true that we approve between 1,000 and 1,200 projects per year. Currently, the statistics on the number of projects approved indicates that that trend is continuing. There has been no real changes. It is true that this brought about some delays for the projects under $100

Human Resources committee  No, when we prepare the documents to be signed, if necessary, we accompany the minister to the region, for example. We even went to Toronto in order to have him sign off on projects.

Human Resources committee  As far as the average value of projects is concerned, there was no impact. The fact that it was the Minister, Mr. Jean-Pierre Blackburn who signed the agreements and approved the projects had no impact on the average value of the projects, if that is what you are asking. There

Human Resources committee  Are you talking about programs in general, or only those involving the social economy? If you are only talking about the social economy, I can tell you that generally speaking the projects are...

Human Resources committee  The average must be approximately $250,000 per project, in general. Very big projects are approved as are very small ones. It varies from $10,000 to several millions.

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  I can answer that question. In Quebec, before the election was called, we had already signed 20 agreements related to the capacity-building initiative. I'd like to point out that the initiative is worth $4.5 million. Twenty other agreements were then being assessed. Since that t

Human Resources committee  The exact question is: what is the leveraging effect on our initiatives, or on the GDP, let's say.

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  Yes. For the capacity-building initiative alone, which I mentioned briefly earlier, over about 18 months we contributed $4.9 million to 34 projects, generating $6.4 million in total investment. With regard to the patient capital fund, to which we are contributing $22.8 millio

Human Resources committee  Economic Development Canada has received all funds for the capacity-building initiative. As for the patient capital funding, we were only slightly affected by the cuts. In fact, $22.8 million are available for the patient capital fund. Economic Development Canada is moving ahead.

Human Resources committee  Not at all. We didn't feel the budget cuts because we were able to go forward, due to other funding. In fact, there was a significant leveraging effect because of the Fonds de solidarité FTQ. As a result, we will be able to establish a $50 million fund.

Human Resources committee  I was not expecting to make a presentation as such, but I will talk to you about initiatives that Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions has implemented, the ones that Nancy mentioned earlier. In fact, we had planned to put in place three initiatives as of April 2004. O