Thank you, Chair.
I want to thank all of the presenters for coming and giving us your perspective and sharing your story with us.
My first question is for Carole Gagnon.
First of all, Carole, I'll thank you for being with us today, as I have everybody else.
On March 12, Margot Young from the Canadian Union of Public Employees came before this committee; you might know her. She expressed significant reservations about social finance. I'm going to quote from her and then ask you to comment:
We are also very critical of the companies that are promoting it. The fact that financialization of public human services will make matters worse on the ground results in people making money on public programs that are supposed to be helping the most disadvantaged in society.
We find that the worst part of the social finance initiative is what is called the social impact bond.
She said that this allows the government to delay paying for needed social services until sometime in the future, and continued that:
It's a kind of cynical marriage of financial investor opportunism and governments that want to push the costs of the current year off the books.
Social impact bonds leverage private sector money to invest in social services with the promise that the government will pay them back in four or five years with a substantial return on their investment. These returns are up to 12%....This tortured logic tries to tie up outdated and debunked notions that the private sector has something to offer in finding more efficient ways of delivering needed services.
I'm really interested in your perspective on Ms. Young's reservations and what you have to say about that.