Mr. Chairman, members, first of all, I want to thank you for your invitation. Before elaborating on the matters of concern to us, allow me to recall some of the history of the organization I represent.
The Société des Acadiens et Acadiennes du Nouveau-Brunswick, which was founded in 1973, is a provincial organization dedicated to the defence and promotion of the collective rights and interests of the Acadian community of New Brunswick. It acts as the official political mouthpiece of New Brunswick's Acadian community.
The Acadian community's community sector consists of 33 provincial organizations represented within the Forum de concertation des organismes acadiens and is divided into five spheres of action: the arts, culture and communication; the economy; education; the socio-community sector; and the socio-political sector.
Of course, many regional and local organizations that are not members of the Forum also work for the development and vitality of the Acadian community and may receive funding under the Collaboration Accord.
For the years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, we have $1,952,000 under the Collaboration Accord annually to support our programs, whereas demand is in the order of $2,900,000. As regards support for innovation, we have $488,000 a year. For 2008-2009, demand equals approximately $900,000 for the first round of projects, and we expect nearly the same amount for the second round. The situation was the same last year.
It is easy to understand from these figures that, since the groups do not have the bare minimum in which to operate, they're cutting back their initiatives and the services they offer to their members. In general, this situation is slowing the overall sustainable development of our community.
Due to a lack of financial, technical and human resources, most groups are already unable to engage in development or to deliver the required services to the community and to their members. Without enough skilled and well-paid professional resources, the organizations cannot design, plan, deliver and evaluate the services they provide. The first services that have already been cut are the regular updating of websites, information-sharing and the creation of tools to develop community skills.
The chronic underfunding of support for action undermines the energy of volunteers and employees, who in many cases must work over-time without pay simply to find basic funding and to organize funding activities. As a result of the lack of marketing and communication professionals, expected resulted are not being achieved. In addition, the private sector is highly sought after in funding campaigns organized by institutions. Companies, of which there are a limited number, also have limits on the resources they can use to provide financial assistance to the groups that request it.
It goes without saying that this underfunding of support for action dangerously undermines sectoral and intersectoral consultation efforts and forces groups to scale back their work efforts. This situation prevents them from taking effective action to achieve the results contemplated by the two signatories of the Collaboration Accord.
To achieve, in spite of everything, the results contemplated by their members and the community, groups rely to a high degree on funding for innovation. This is how major activities have seen the light of day.
The organizations are thus caught in a vicious circle and are faced daily with unresolvable dilemmas. Heritage Canada cannot forget that these organizations were created to meet the needs expressed by the public or that they offer a host of services that no government could deliver based on current funding levels or without the contributions of the many volunteers working for them.
All of this obviously has a very negative impact on the stability and efficiency of the organizations, which face significant staff and volunteer turnover. A number of initiatives requiring long-term work in order to achieve results will never be completed. Many ideas and tools developed for structural projects will stop and be lost as a result of a lack of resources.
This situation also prevents new initiatives from being created and developed. Since budgets have already been exhausted, for both action and innovation, many groups do not file applications, knowing there is no money to fund them. When funding is granted for support for action to an organization that has not yet received any or for a new project, the funding granted to other organizations is reduced because the budget remains the same.
In our constantly changing minority community, that seriously undermines the ability of the local community and populations to take charge of their full development.
This situation was moreover the reason for a request to increase funding for the Acadian community sector under the Canada-community agreement, made to the former minister of Canadian Heritage, Ms. Beverly Oda, and to the present minister, Ms. Josée Verner. I hope that you will be able to support us in this effort.
The figures on this matter speak for themselves. Since the first agreement between the Government of Canada and the Acadian community of New Brunswick, in 1994, the Acadian community, which represents 25% of the minority francophone population, has received only 10% of budgeted funding earmarked for the agreements with the various provinces and territories. On a per capita basis, New Brunswick stands in second-last place among the provinces and territories, with $10 per francophone. Only Ontario, with $9 per francophone, receives less funding. This situation must change. I invite you to consult the table in the appendix at the end of this document.
I would add, on this funding issue, that the word “indexing” has never been part of the language used in dealing with the funding of the organizations of the Acadian community sector in New Brunswick. It is therefore strongly recommended that multi-year funding be extended for the term of the agreements. With respect to accountability, the Acadian community sector has long had to provide extensive justification of the way in which it allocates its revenue to the various expenditure items, which is normal. However, we find the governments' requirements of the community sector excessive to say the least. The groups' administrators must often file two or three reports on how they use each grant received, regardless of the amount in question. Furthermore, each funding agency has its own evaluation forms and, more often than not, requires detailed performance indicators. In addition to that is the fact that, every time there is a staff change at a funding organization, accountability factors are subject to new interpretations to which the organizations must adjust.
In the context of the renewal of the Canada-community agreements, it would therefore be appropriate to review the frequency of reports that must filed and to prepare a standard list of performance indicators as well as a standard form in which they must be presented.
With regard to the management of agreements, in the early 1990s, before the Canada-community agreements were put in place, the Acadian community had already observed that the funding granted to it by the Office of the Secretary of State—which has become Canadian Heritage—under the official languages program was inadequate to meet its development needs. A number of sectoral organizations were also established at that time, as a result of which the number of grant applications increased for both basic and project funding. It was also at that time that major reductions were made to the program as part of the budget cuts ordered by the federal government.