Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Arthur Kroeger. I'm the chairman of the board of CPRN, and I have been the chairman for the past seven years. I was associated with CPRN when it was first created by Judith Maxwell twelve years ago, and I have been on the board throughout. I have watched it evolve from a bit of a shoestring operation into what I think can fairly be described as the major social policy research organization in Canada.
The coming into existence of CPRN met an important need. Organizations such as the C.D. Howe Institute, the Fraser Institute, and now Mr. Manning's foundation find it fairly easy to raise a lot of money from the private sector. It's quite different in the area of social policy research: business says it is the government's job. Indeed, governments have supported us throughout, and they have been an important base upon which we've conducted our operations. As you know, the announcement ended government funding effective from the current year, and we will be on our own as of next April 1. We're currently evaluating how we might function.
With respect to the history of CPRN, from small beginnings we have had two evaluations. Both of them covered a wide range of people--supporters, provincial governments--across the country. They were very positive about the quality of our work, and they vote with their feet. We get 1.6 million downloads at our website every year. I would compare that with 900,000 for the Institute for Research on Public Policy and about 430,000 for the C.D. Howe Institute. We do have users, and we have been filling a purpose.
We have prided ourselves on providing neutral space for dialogue. We are not ideological. We are not the Centre for Policy Alternatives, on the left, nor are we the Fraser Institute, on the right. We try to conduct very objective research about matters, such as policies that are best for children. We think our work has been well received.
We are assessing our future now. If, in the worst case, CPRN was to disappear, it would leave a very important void in the area of social policy, and it would leave most of the research output to the organizations, such as the C.D. Howe and Fraser Institutes and Mr. Manning's institute. That is the issue before us.
I'd like to ask our president now to elaborate on the current situation.