Funds were denied.
You would know, as deputy minister--and you have a great team at HRSDC--that in previous years we received a list of every organization that applied for funding within our riding. We received a very detailed list, actually.
I'm just going to use an example of an organization that would apply for $50,000 for x number of spaces. They would receive $20,000, as a recommendation. Or they would be denied completely, or they would perhaps receive the full funds.
When that was not a privacy concern last year or the year before or for the last ten years, why has it suddenly become a concern in regard to privacy?
I have organizations in my particular constituency calling me and saying, “Can you please provide us with additional information? Because we are not able to get help from Service Canada or HRSDC.” They are looking at us not as a Liberal MP or a Conservative MP or a Bloc MP. They are looking at us as links between what's going on here in Ottawa and what's going on, on the ground. They are upset, they are frustrated, and they are angry, because they feel as if they are boxed into a corner, and they don't know which way to turn.
And it's unfortunate for these types of petty politics to be taking over the good work that many of these organizations are doing.
So why is it a privacy concern now versus the case in the last five or ten years when it wasn't a privacy concern?