Thank you for having us here.
Mr. Chair, at the onset, I would like to state clearly that the National Congress of Italian Canadians is a non-partisan group. You will find within our group members of every political party in Canada. As such, we are not here today to play party politics but to continue in a quest that began well over 20 years ago for our community and thus for this congress.
The National Congress of Italian Canadians is not a club or an association. It is an umbrella group that represents the Italian community across the country. In fact, every Italian-Canadian association that has spoken to this committee has representation within the congress in some manner.
The NCIC was able to build a consensus within the Italian community when it was the lead group in the negotiations with the Canadian government for the ACE program, and when that program was cancelled the NCIC maintained the channels of communication open with various community groups in order to continue to lobby for this cause.
Some of us at this table have been instrumental in keeping this issue on the forefront for over 20 years. The document that we are tabling today—