Human Resources committee  As I said a little earlier, on the international scene, the Québécois model, that is to say everything that is going on in Quebec in terms of the social economy, is considered exemplary. Last week, there was a summit for Quebec; despite that, we welcomed people from 20 countries.

Human Resources committee  These are some of the discussions that had begun when the social initiative started. These are discussions from which, for example, the City of Montreal has just announced that they're going to adopt a social economy policy that goes in the same sense, and there are some discussions going on in Quebec.

Human Resources committee  Again, I would say that what's important to see is that the role of government is leveraging. I think we've seen it in the initiative in Quebec around the fiducie. It's true from the Quebec government's intervention. We see it in other countries as well. This is an entrepreneurial movement.

Human Resources committee  We already have some indicators, such as obviously the jobs created. We talked about even measuring financially how much less it costs the government when the handicapped or other people are working, as opposed to being at home with government support. I can give you an example.

Human Resources committee  The first thing I would say is that we were at a very advanced stage, as Mr. Savage mentioned, when there was a change in government. There had been a call for proposals, there had been a jury, there had been acceptance, there had been a letter. There were negotiations. There were partners around the table.

Human Resources committee  We do have an opinion on that, of course, but I think we are here to discuss other matters.

Human Resources committee  No, that is usually done by volunteer organizations. We do not sell literacy services. Some of our insertion enterprises do offer corporate training for under-educated individuals, but we do not have literacy initiatives as such.

Human Resources committee  Indeed, there are some initiatives to help under-educated people enter the workforce and to address basic training issues. There is also at least one social economy enterprise selling literacy services in the workplace. Employers pay for these services. We are not involved in this field, but grassroots education groups may not be directly involved either.

Human Resources committee  I agree with what was said. We went through the same thing in Quebec, where there was a certain perception that this was a partisan issue. There have been changes in government, including in municipal governments that have been supporting the social economy. I would say this is a good opportunity for us to be able to explain to the new Conservative government that this is good for government, even from the perspective of saying we want less government; this is communities taking in hand some of the social and economic issues that normally and traditionally people like myself perhaps would be asking government to do.

Human Resources committee  I would say first that we've had studies that have shown that the return on investment.... For example, there's a network of non-profit enterprises that hires handicapped people; over 3,000 handicapped people are working, fully contributing, and paying taxes. Pierre Fortin, a very well-known Quebec economist, has shown that the money given to these enterprises basically compensates for the loss of productivity linked to the handicapped, and that the cost of these people, who no other enterprise would be willing to hire and who would otherwise be on welfare, is much higher than the contribution to the social enterprises that are out on the market creating all kinds of employment and increasing the gross national product of Canada.

Human Resources committee  Okay. Shortly after the election we met with Minister Blackburn, who was very receptive and very open and understood, I think, very well what the social economy is. I must give credit where credit is due. I think he played a major role with the civil servants in maintaining the initiative, and we really appreciate it.

Human Resources committee  I agree entirely with Mr. Savage, who said that we were not significantly affected by the cuts. However, in factual terms, the patient capital fund was cut by $5.7 million. Nonetheless, this did not prevent us from going ahead with the project, and we are very grateful for it.

Human Resources committee  Since you were at the summit last week, you will have had an opportunity to see that the social economy really encompasses people from all sectors, all walks of life and all regions of Quebec, including the unions, the business sector, municipal elected officials, and many people who collectively believe in the importance of the social economy in Quebec's socio-economic development.

Human Resources committee  Very well. In conclusion, it is important to know that the Government of Canada has established an initiative that has had an extremely positive impact in Quebec. Since the initiative has worked well in Quebec, it could be extended to other parts of Canada. The Government of Canada is about to announce a contribution to the Fiducie du Chantier de l'économie sociale.

Human Resources committee  I have some documents to distribute.