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 purpos

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

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 g

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  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

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 almo

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 w

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-correct

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you for asking that. We feel supportive of the bill. Really, the two issues that are of concern are the enshrining of the fairness principle...and we think that's a very good thing to do, but again, we just want to draw to your attention that there seems to be an initiativ

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  As I said, our sector receives about 7% of funding from government. Around half of that is in the form of grants and contributions and the other half is in the form of contracts for services. Our organizations, like United Way, Volunteer Canada, or John Howard Society of Canada ,

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Absolutely. The spirit of what you've articulated is highly consistent with what we're presenting to you today. To the extent that it's hard for recipient organizations to comply, it is extra hard for recipient organizations in our sector to comply, because they're very small.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  I'll declare, if you promise not to hold it against me, that I'm a lawyer, and so I'm at ease, shall we say, that sometimes the real test of a law is in its application. So the spirit of the language is something we're extremely comfortable with, and really the test will be, over

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Yes, we are supporters of the accord and the codes. A tremendous effort was put into negotiating these a number of years ago. They were signed off by the Prime Minister of Canada, not in a partisan or narrow way, but to commit the Government of Canada and the sector. Service Cana

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Exactly.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  No. The issue about the accord and codes is under recommendation 4, which is the accountability framework. What we're really saying is that we agree with the spirit of the act, that there should be an overall accountability framework. It deals with issues such as the government n