Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  At the provincial level, grants are service oriented, while at the national level, they are more policy oriented. Insurance is one example. We are working with Heritage Canada to develop a national policy on insurance accessibility. However, at the provincial level, more specific programs are in place.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Any area can be both a federal and a provincial responsibility. For example, with respect to small and medium-sized enterprises, is that a subject of provincial jurisdiction? Perhaps, but we have in the federal government a lot of national policies and programs to deal with almost every sector of the economy, at Industry Canada and so on.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  It's quite detailed, frankly, in the submission, but generally speaking, it began occurring when there was tremendous concern across Canada in both federal and provincial governments about deficit reduction. It was an area, then, where long-term funding was basically cut and it was moved to very short-term project-based, heavily audited--

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Exactly right. It dates back to about 1992, in that period, and it occurred at both federal and provincial levels, really irrespective of the nature of the government. It was really part of the deficit reduction era, when there was a tremendous, as we would suggest, over-correction and move toward all of this highly unstable financing that simply creates a tremendous waste of energy and a diversion from the core functions of serving Canadians in their communities.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you very much for your question. Data is in fact available with respect to the province. We do like to collect a significant amount of data. It's one of the things with long-term funding that we would like to have, an improved capacity to collect data. I can tell you in general that levels of volunteerism in Quebec are a little bit lower, frankly, than in the country as a whole.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Imagine Canada has approximately 1,100 member agencies, 12% of which come from Quebec. Overall, there are about 200,000 agencies operating in this sector, over 20% of them from Quebec.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you. In respect to the Auditor General, we clearly support the need for the Government of Canada to have a strong audit function in respect to auditing its own practices. I think the concern of the sector is that we're already, frankly, subject to multiple audits under the grants and contributions processes.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. My name is Teri Kirk and I am the Vice-President, Government Relations and Public Policy, Imagine Canada. I am pleased to make this submission on behalf of Imagine Canada and the 13 other agencies listed on page one. Our purpose in so doing is to draw the committee's attention to the sector's views on the impact of Part I of the bill which concerns the administration of grants and contributions, as well as of Part 3, which concerns the contracting process.