My colleague Mr. Roger Pomerleau and I travelled around the province of Quebec. We visited every corner of the province. We met with many cultural organizations that complained about the delays in receiving an answer. One organization—I can provide you with the name after the meeting if you wish—even told us the following story: they sent in an application in October 2008 and last spring, they were told that they would receive an answer in September 2009, whereas their event was to take place in August 2009. There is something wrong here, that's not normal.
I have other examples of organizations that received grants but found out about it on the very day of their event. I have names and dates of events. Everything I am telling you is documented. This situation is constantly recurring across the province of Quebec. This often affected the partnership fund but it also affected other grants programs. We are under the impression that that is how Canadian Heritage works. Organizations do not receive an answer in time. There is a certain cavalier attitude that I do not understand. You do not have statistics, which partly explains the situation. We wonder what concrete solutions might be available. We do not know the real reasons.
Is there a lack of staff or of funding? How much time does the minister's office take to sort through the projects? Is it an acceptable length of time? Is it getting longer? Is it possible to shorten it? These are all questions I would like you to answer. What are the real reasons?