Human Resources committee  There are a number of current agreements. There are three agreements that currently exist for which the funding expires in March 2009. The federal government could certainly look to continue funding in those areas, because we believe that all three of those agreements have been successful agreements.

Human Resources committee  The government certainly believes that post-secondary education is very critical to our success and to the success of our citizens. We want to make sure it's accessible to all people who wish to participate. As the first thing we've done, for the last five or six years and maybe longer we've had a freeze on tuition rates.

Human Resources committee  I referenced in my opening remarks the areas of prevention, reduction, and alleviation of poverty. So the initiatives we take really fall under one of those three areas, and we target. In some cases we may target persons who are younger, increasing child tax benefits. We provide free textbooks now in all our schools, from kindergarten up to grade 12.

Human Resources committee  That's it from this end. We'll turn it back to you, Mr. Chair, to see if we have any questions that we can answer for you.

Human Resources committee  Yes we certainly are, Judy. We're doing that, and I'm going to ask Aisling to give you a bit more detail in terms of the process we went through on that. There was a fair amount of consultation done up front to involve the cities, the municipalities, and other community-based groups.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Allison. I do want to thank you for the opportunity to present to your committee today. Lynn, Aisling, and I have presented now to three different committees of the federal government, but they've been Senate committees. This is the first time we've had an opportunity to present to a House of Commons standing committee, so we appreciate this opportunity.