Finance committee  The foundation's activities are determined by an act of Parliament. The foundation's expenses are divided into two categories: transfers of money to individuals in the form of grants, and money which pays for administrative costs. We are governed by an act. That is the only way we function.

Finance committee  I've often thought it would be useful to have one pot of money directed at the objective, and that's why in working with the provinces the foundation has gone to the provinces with a block of money and an objective. We co-finance programs with provinces, so there is a single foundation provincial program.

Finance committee  First, I believe that the Auditor General was referring to foundations in general, since at the time she did not have the right to audit the books of these foundations. But the last budget of the last government changed that. Now, the Auditor General has the right to audit the foundation's books.

Finance committee  The governance rules of the foundation prescribe how directors and members are appointed. The foundation's administrators are responsible for developing policy. Six administrators are appointed by the government, and nine others are elected by members of the foundation. The members of the foundation are shareholders and they were initially chosen by the government.

Finance committee  Thank you. I agree with you. We have two problems. We have to keep the participation of the middle class in higher education where it is, and it's already very high. The government recently introduced measures to allow them to borrow more, but there's a tipping point on borrowing.

Finance committee  The first is that the federal government would do it alone. If that happens the students will benefit, but there will be a loss in provincial programming because the federal government has not been as effective at levering out provincial money as we have. It can go to the provinces, in which case it's not absolutely clear it would go to student financial assistance, or it can go to the foundation; you pass a law that tells me I have to pay it to students and I have no choice but to do it.

Finance committee  Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning. You've already received a brief from the foundation, so I will attempt briefly to summarize the points in that brief. The foundation believes that Canada requires a highly educated workforce to be competitive in an increasingly global and knowledge-based economy.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  It was $2.5 billion.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  It was established as part of the 1998 budget. It received the money in the summer of 1998, the executive director—I myself—was hired at the beginning of 1999, and we made our first awards in 2000.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Not from the Government of Canada. We have had a grant of $4.3 million from petroleum and gas companies in Canada to run a scholarship for people who are in need and who are entering undergraduate programs of interest to that industry. Out of that $2.5 billion we have received, by the time we finish the current mandate—which will be at the end of the 2008-09 academic year—we will have probably issued, out of the original $2.5 billion, somewhere around $3.2 billion of student financial assistance.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Under the current legislation, the foundation is required to spend the capital and all interest in 10 years, beginning from the first issuing of a scholarship by the foundation. So our directive in obeying the law is to reduce the endowment to zero at the end of the 2008-09 academic year.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Most of the data that the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation holds on individuals is transferred to us electronically by the provinces. It's transferred into one computer, and then moved manually onto another computer that has no connection at all with the outside world.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  That's correct. Now, obviously we need to use that data. For example, we are required to write to students. If we're issuing 100,000 letters, we contract that business out, and the contractors who are working for the foundation sign a code of conduct, with conflict of interest rules, as part of the contract they have with the foundation, which binds them to respect exactly the same rules as we are required to respect regarding the information.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  I left Saskatchewan in 1988.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Yes, that is correct. In fact, if you go to the foundation's website, you will see a map of Canada. If you click in that map on your province, you will see exactly how much money in each of the foundation's programs is going to your province. If you want to break it down by institution, you will find how many students, how much money to students in the institution, and you can also do it by riding.