Human Resources committee  Perhaps I may answer your previous question with regard to retargeting. There are different funding streams in the National Literacy Secretariat, or whatever it's called these days. One of them is what we call FPT, federal-provincial-territorial. That has been eliminated, so what exists is funding for national projects.

Human Resources committee  To the best of my knowledge, the federal government has contributed, during the last funding year, $38.5 million to the previous National Literacy Secretariat. Now, with $17.7 million gone, I cannot see how you can redirect and still maintain efficiency and effectiveness. So no, it's not possible.

Human Resources committee  I would like to give you a concrete example of the impacts of the cuts. The AlphaPlus Centre, originally founded as Alpha Ontario, is an organization that deals in four streams: a deaf stream, a native stream, and francophone and anglophone streams. It's a support organization.

Human Resources committee  Let me speak to your question. Dr. Satya Brink is from HRSDC. She is the director of policy research for national learning, and I'm quoting her: “At the current level of investment and with current programming, any improvements achieved are slower than the population growth nationally.

Human Resources committee  No, the OLC was not consulted in any capacity. I think we could have really contributed some valuable information. I'm no legal expert, but to the best of my knowledge, Revenue Canada limits the advocacy dimension of non-profit organizations to 20%, so when we paint the literacy organizations as advocacy groups it's simply inaccurate.