Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members.
I'm pleased to be here on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society to support Bill C-43 as it relates to the amendment that would allow us the use of computers to conduct and manage our lotteries.
Prior to joining the Canadian Cancer Society four years ago, I managed provincial lotteries for over 20 years at both the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and British Columbia Lottery Corporation. As I learned about the charitable lottery sector, I was shocked by the restrictions that disallowed the use of computers, based on a clause written in 1984. No one at that time could have predicted the pervasive use of computers in our everyday life and the extent to which we would rely on the efficiency and speed of doing business via the Internet.
Allowing charitable organizations to use computers and other modern technologies in their lottery sales, operations and draws, would increase our overall revenue dedicated to our mission work and improve customer service to the level our supporters expect. Every dollar saved on administrative costs is a dollar that goes to our life-saving work. We take very seriously our responsibility to keep our administrative costs at a minimum and manage our operations as efficiently as possible, so that we can distribute the maximum revenue to our various missions.
We also want to make sure that everything is as easy as possible for our customers, while minimizing our costs. I manage the lottery day to day, and it's very difficult to explain to a customer why we are unable to send their ticket or tax receipt by email, even though they ask us to. The time-consuming, costly and paper-heavy processes we currently use make our organizations look outdated, not environmentally conscious, and inefficient overall. This does not instill confidence in our supporters and will make acquiring new, younger customers even more difficult in the future.
The changes proposed would impact our current process at numerous points in the transaction with the customer. Depending on the charity, the savings could be well over $100,000 for only one lottery on even simply one of these touch points. Add in the cost for postage, labour, paper, etc., and the impact is significant. If you extrapolate that over all of the lotteries in the country, the savings are in the millions each year. This is money that could be used to enhance the lives of Canadians, with no cost to government or the taxpayer.
The net revenue from Canadian Cancer Society's lottery program goes directly to fund life-saving research into over 200 types of cancer. Since 2001, we have raised over $65 million for cancer research from our lotteries. Today, we can only afford to fund about 25% of the approved research grants that are submitted. Every dollar saved through improved efficiencies means more funds for cancer research and moves us closer to a potential cure.
We would also like to express our thanks to the federal government for including this amendment in the budget, and ask that you please support the amendment and help us move into the next generation of charitable lotteries and the associated additional funds for the benefit of all Canadians.
Mr. Chair and honourable members, thank you for allowing me a platform to present on behalf of the Canadian charitable lottery sector. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.