Thank you, Madam Chair.
I appreciate the witnesses' being here today and bringing forth the information and mentioning the things they're working with. One thing Sonya mentioned was friendship. I remember being at a meeting a year ago, hosted by a member from the Liberal Party in one of the two major cities in our province, at which we talked about partnerships. There was a lot of discussion about friendship centres and issues in this major city's urban areas. There was a city councillor there who offered a tremendous amount of resources and things the city could do, but there just was not a take-up from the city; they wanted to deal with the feds.
Being a former city councillor, I'm saying those are the guys on the ground. They are the guys who can make decisions and do things quicker. They refer sometimes here to the megalopolis of the federal government, because it's so hard to move things. In partnerships I would argue that the municipalities are much more flexible and willing to do things, so partner with them. I pleaded at that meeting, “Listen to the city councillor here; he's offering you things”, and there wasn't much uptake on it. I would encourage any urban groups to work with the municipalities. They're great partners and have much more flexibility to make decisions.
Could you give me one example from friendship centres—I know you mentioned many different things—of something that's really a success, a winner for you? Could you give me one example of something that has succeeded?