Official Languages committee  The officers in the regions are responsible for helping the communities as much as possible to understand the process and the requirements of an application, whether it's for multi-year funding or recurrent project funding. It's not equal from region to region; it depends on the ability of the communities.

Official Languages committee  In the context of the community consultation process, the communities have established recommendation committees, essentially review committees that re-examine all the applications for their communities. These are people who have declared that they are not in a situation of conflict of interest with respect to the proposals submitted by the groups seeking funding.

Official Languages committee  It's all the proposals that are submitted to us. The binders are used for the operation of committees. They are submitted to Canadian Heritage and subsequently destroyed.

Official Languages committee  With regard to files coming from the regions, that is to say programming and project files that are submitted and must be analyzed, the number is on average between 800 and 900 a year. Incidentally, they all arrive at the same time, like a wave at the start of the fiscal year. Approximately 602 files have been approved this year.

Official Languages committee  They were rejected.

Official Languages committee  In this case as well, that varies considerably. It depends on the communities. Some, which are better off or better established, receive less money from Canadian Heritage but more from other sources because they are better connected and have more experience and presence on the ground, in various fields.

Official Languages committee  In general, the smallest groups, such as those in remote northern communities, receive more funding from Canadian Heritage than from other departments. It's between 30% and 60%.

Official Languages committee  Given that the process was slow this year, that may not reflect the facts well, but the 25% interim funding normally would definitely make it possible to pay out the funds at the start of the fiscal year. That's something the groups appreciate, in fact, because they need money to operate from the start of the new fiscal year.