Those motions are separate from this one.
This issue is one that has been raised in the House of Commons and in the committees and in the community. We had been assured repeatedly that all was okay with this summer placement program.
I raised this in the House three months ago, and in the response then the minister told me, “It's hilarious that the member would be concerned about a few million dollars in cuts.”
A few weeks ago, when we started raising it in the House, we were told it was all about Wal-Mart and Rogers, etc., and that this was supposed to be for a not-for-profit organization. But rather than reallocate the $11 million, they just cut it from the program, meaning that students were hurt.
Two weeks ago, members started getting calls from not-for-profits in their ridings. We raised this in committee. I raised the Autism Society of Nova Scotia and lots of others.
I have many letters here from people who not only were declined funding and who had always received funding, but who were insulted by the process. There's a home that takes care of students who have been kicked out of their homes and can't stay in school without this program. They got funding for 23 out of 70 areas applied for, and they couldn't believe it.
The Salvation Army got 31 out of 70 and were outraged.
Mic Mac Rowing Club says their program will not exist without the funding support. They're helping students who need it the most.
I could go through a number of these organizations that were the victim of this. Still we were told in the House that it was okay. Clearly, it's not okay.
Last week, Service Canada started covering up the program and trying to fix things when they started to scramble. We even heard that this was round two. We've heard that it was the bureaucrats' fault. Some of the stories are unbelievable.
The questions that need to be answered are: what was budgeted initially, because clearly it wasn't the full amount; second, what was added since then, and where did that money come from; what criteria were changed, because organizations that were turned down two weeks ago suddenly got funding on Friday—not everybody, but a significant number, we're told. And where do we go from here?
Minister Monte Solberg is a good guy. He didn't go out to deliberately hurt students. He didn't go out to deliberately hurt not-for-profit organizations. But that happened, and somebody has to take some responsibility for this. It is an important issue.
The clerk, I understand, advised officials of this motion, when I filed it last week, so that they'd be standing by. We had previous motions—exactly—that had been passed in this committee, looking for information we were told we couldn't get. Yet the minister has all that information when he stands up in the House of Commons. He knows who's been given grants in our ridings, and he knows who's been turned down, but he won't give it to us.
That's not acceptable. I think we need to have officials here from Service Canada this week to tell us exactly the answers to these questions, so that we can give some assurance to not-for-profits and students across Canada that this won't happen again.