Finance committee  In that point in my testimony, I perhaps wasn't being clear. I was actually speaking in support of the inputs of some of the other charities and the people who were working for them who could be at substantive personal risk. That being said, there are college staff who are working in violence-prone areas of the world, who may on occasion be at risk, but we are more speaking in favour of the points of the other charities that work in much more dangerous situations.

Finance committee  Depending on the province.... For example, in Alberta, the government requires the colleges and I believe universities and other public sector institutions to actually publish it right in their annual reports of the institution, which are on the website, and then the over-$100,000 applies in almost every province and territory.

Finance committee  Our first priority is that it can be covered under the existing modifications to the CRA modifications. But should the committee decide that you need increased public accountability and transparency, then removal of the cap is the significant factor for us.

Finance committee  In our case, although our association is a registered charity we're actually here speaking on behalf of the colleges, institutes, and CÉGEPs in the country. It's more a matter of principle and goals for each of those institutions whether they choose to have a foundation or not, because the autonomous boards of governors appointed by the provincial governments are trying to achieve the mission of the institutions in the way that's most effective, efficient, open, and transparent.

Finance committee  In our case, because of the nature of colleges, we are transparent to the public. We're public institutions under provincial-territorial administration.

Finance committee  Because we believe so strongly that the existing mechanisms for accountability and transparency are within the power of CRA, putting this in the bill amounts to duplication. The bill is therefore flawed and would be costly in duplicating administration for all charities.

Finance committee  Thank you. I'm Terry Anne Boyles. I'm vice-president of public affairs with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. We represent Canada's 150 colleges, institutes, CÉGEPs, polytechnics, and universities with a college mandate. We have campuses in over 1,000 communities in the country and work very closely with the charitable sector in each of those communities and in the wider communities, the regions the colleges serve.

Health committee  There is about a 94% placement rate across the country as a whole. If the community wants more grads, we don't have the capacity to provide them.

Health committee  I have a point on the data. I sit on the chief statistician's advisory committee on post-secondary education and statistics, and one of the biggest concerns--obviously there is lack of data on the colleges altogether--is that there is a wealth of information in the census reports that would be extremely useful to the work of all of us as we look at health human resources.

Health committee  Certainly. Excuse me if I speak in English. It's my Saskatchewanian background. Once an immigrant in the three pilot countries--we have an office in Manila, in Guangzhou, and in Delhi--is accepted for immigration to Canada, they are referred to the staff in those offices. The staff work with them, and they do workshops on the area of the country they might be moving to, their particular field or discipline, linking to the regulatory groups, the accreditation groups--medical lab technologists, for example--trying to fast-forward the ability of the immigrant to enter the employment field once they get to Canada.

Health committee  Yes, the pilot was about three years in length. We now have 8,000 people who have gone through the program. In your packages--it's only in English, I'm sorry--there are four examples of health care workers who've moved into employment in hospitals, in home care settings, in technology lab settings in Canada.

Health committee  The managers of each of the centres are employees of our association, working in partnership with the consular staff, so the consular staff refer to the team. It's a combination of Canadians who are posted into those communities and locally hired people working on the program. We posted, actually this week, the management positions for the new centres as well.

Health committee  Yes, with a short presentation from Rae Gropper.

Health committee  Thank you. The Association of Canadian Community Colleges represents Canada's colleges, specialized institutes such as the Michener Institute, polytechnics, CEGEPs, university colleges, and colleges with university mandates. Our membership is very broad. We have 150 member institutions and we have campuses in over 1,000 Canadian communities.

Finance committee  The association has actually spoken for the elimination of that two-week waiting period because we find that the financial implications for the family units as a whole have been detrimental to the completion of apprenticeships until perhaps a later time in life. The impact on the carpentry and construction industry is quite significant.