Evidence of meeting #84 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was poland.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB
What would it take, do you think, to make that connection between youth and potential mentors?
Board Director and Youth Committee Chair, Polish Canadian Business and Professional Association of Windsor
It would take a simple phone call. Really, for people who are involved in the community, some things only take a phone call, especially being involved in the political community in Windsor for so long and having business dinners, having our Italian friends and Chinese friends there. It's not only limited to the Polish community. That's an easy connection to make.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
No, your time is up, but they're good questions.
I have a request from Ms. Ramsey to ask one short quick question. Go ahead.
NDP
Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON
Both of you clearly have some resources. We heard from our earlier panellists that they're struggling to find the resources to fund the work that you're doing. I wonder if you could each tell us how you fund yourselves. Is it through your membership? How do you find those community partners, if that's the way you're doing it?
Board Director and Youth Committee Chair, Polish Canadian Business and Professional Association of Windsor
As an association we've been looking to have mentors on our board of directors, experienced people who have helped with grant writing, which is a very long and tedious process. It's very difficult for a person who is not experienced to write a grant and receive a grant, especially because you have to be incorporated and not-for-profit, all those kinds of things. I think to help people get some financial funding, you need those mentors who have experience in writing those kinds of grant applications because they take forever and ever.
Director, Trade Department, Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario
As far as we're concerned, we offer services and we charge fees for services. If we had more funding, obviously there would be more services and a lot more opportunities and possibilities to do a lot more. That's obviously something we would really welcome because we're a small organization and everything we do we need to either charge a fee to whoever is using our services, or rely on supports from outside sources, business organizations, and local governments at all levels. That's how we operate.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Thank you very much.
That wraps up our day today with our panels. We had great dialogue and great witnesses this afternoon. We're going to take your advice and put many of your things in our report. If you want a copy of our report, when we get it done, we'll get it to you.
Thank you, everybody, for this afternoon.
Before I end the meeting, just a reminder that tonight we have votes. The ambassador knows we're going to be running a little late. If anybody is going tonight, that's okay. We have another group of panellists coming. We're going to do just one panel on Wednesday.
Thank you very much again.
The meeting is adjourned.