Human Resources Committee on June 2nd, 2009

[Wayne de Jong]

You could say we are a bank. It is a revolving fund that needs to be capitalized on an ongoing basis. When we can't get affordable land, then we have to raise more cash in order to buy the land we need. There's a tremendous amount of fundraising required to bring more money into the revolving fund, the Fund for Humanity, which is used to build houses. Mortgage payments that come back to the affiliates are also used to build houses. In many cases, one-third of their funding comes from mortgage payments and two-thirds comes from capital injections by donors. This is necessary, because the mortgages are interest-free. We're not earning as much as a normal bank, and we need more capital to keep the fund going.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Does anyone have any further questions before I wrap up? All right.

I do want to thank all of you for being here. We really appreciate the work that you're doing and the suggestions that you brought to us today.

As we wrap up here in Toronto, I do want to thank Christine, the clerk, and Kevin, the researcher, who put in a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to make it happen so that we, as MPs, just get to show up. All the real work is done behind the scenes, as you're aware.

I want to thank the translators and the technical people who also make all these things happen, and, of course, the logistics people. I don't even see them in the room. They're probably--

[A voice]

On the plane.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

That's right, they're on the plane--gone.

Chantal and Hilary are also researchers who didn't come for this part of the trip.

I also want to thank Mr. Ouellet, who is substituting.

You are absolutely a real gentleman. It was nice to get to know you a little bit during the last couple of days. Thank you very much.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.