Since the fund was created in 1997. Minister Scott travelled across the country in 1996. There was $30 million in 1997, and it's $30 million today. That's nine years.
My executive director is sitting in the back row, and if she were here, she would tell you that the cost of delivering services has gone up, just like everything else. If somebody wants to go to an operating program, the cost has gone up. If there's a service we need to fund...all those things consistently go up. I'm amazed by the number of people we serve. We're essentially trying to do more with less.
There's one other thing about this program that drives me nuts, to put it in simple language. If we have a client and we fund them to go into a program, at the end of the year the Government of Canada says we have to give them a tax receipt--the T4A. This means that people who are living on limited incomes have to claim whatever services we provided to them on their already small income.
We need to talk about how we provide people with incentives. For some people, the worry about whether they're going to have to pay money back could be enough to stop them in their tracks. It's a huge thing.
The other issue that's really related to this is how we provide people with supports. Then, there's the issue of how the various programs communicate. For example, if you happen to be a person with a disability who is living on income assistance in Nova Scotia, and you're fortunate enough to get money back after you've submitted your income tax, that is clawed back.