My questions are for Mr. Valcourt and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
Mr. Valcourt, right at the beginning of your opening statement you talked about how you are pleased to report on how your government “is going to create jobs” and “stimulate the region's economy”. I find that ironic in that, right off the bat, you have been killing jobs at ACOA and you have been cutting back on grant money. There was a 25% cut—this is a well-known fact reported in the media—to ACOA grants last year alone. That 25% is $78 million. A further $7 million was allocated to be transferred, but it wasn't given out. You talked about stimulating the economy and creating jobs at the same time you are killing grants and killing jobs.
You were asked about that in the media just a little while ago. You were asked about the fact that ACOA has been cutting back left, right, and centre. You talked about how the federal Conservatives have “unprecedented” federal investment in Atlantic Canada through the $25-billion Halifax shipbuilding contract. Now, don't get me wrong: the $25-billion shipbuilding contract is a wonderful thing, but it's not the be-all and end-all for Atlantic Canada, and it's certainly not going to help every nook and cranny in Atlantic Canada—places like Newfoundland and Labrador.
My question is a pretty broad one. What is your overall plan for ACOA and are you still committed to ACOA? For the second part of my question, I'm sure that in terms of the asks, the number of businesses that actually ask for grant money from ACOA...I'm assuming that isn't down, but your refusal rate must be down. Is it? So again, there are two questions.