Obviously, for many organizations, the impact of the cuts was much more extensive than that. For Volunteer Canada, 85% of their budget has been removed. More importantly, for all of these organizations, it's not necessarily about preserving jobs; it's truly about delivering services in their communities. That's what motivates them.
Again, Imagine Canada tries to work very constructively with the government, and we're not here to criticize. We understand that governments do have difficult decisions to make. But I think what it does speak to and what all of us have learned from this is that we do need to have a strategy in place for how we are going to deal with this sector in Canada.
There are some very significant threats on the horizon. Number one is the major indicator for Canadians and around the world to get involved in giving their time and writing cheques. And by the way, Canadians write $9 billion in cheques to these organizations every year. The major driver is religious participation. We may not like that, but that's what the data shows. But religious participation is in massive decline right now.
So if we care about this sector, what activities will we be doing to ensure that it carries on?