Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to comment in person today. My name is Katherine van Kooy and I'm the president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations. Our 440 members reflect the diversity of this sector in terms of the size of the organizations and the range of areas in which they operate.

Finance committee  There are a number of situations in.... I'm going to draw a blank on this. I'm sorry, perhaps I could provide that response to you in writing following this.

Finance committee  I'd certainly be happy to do that. If there's a possibility of following up with you, I will provide that in writing.

Finance committee  A number of things have been looked at. One of the issues experienced by many organizations in need of debt financing is that the commercial banking system is not necessarily attracted to supporting those kinds of organizations. There have been efforts in Canada to try to establish a bank specifically for financing not-for-profit organizations.

Finance committee  Work was done a number of years ago—the voluntary sector initiative under the former government. That initiative led to quite a number of substantial gains. Some of the things I mentioned in terms of the data collection are outcomes as a result of the work that was done during that period of time, but the reason I mention those particular surveys and studies and the satellite accounts is that it's our understanding that those data collection initiatives are potentially not going to be continued to be funded anymore, so that would really be moving us backwards.

Finance committee  No, it's not that the charities need to have a consistent strategy. We're encouraging the federal government to take a broader strategic approach to how it deals with charities and not-for-profit organizations across the country. There are initiatives such as the tax relief that was offered that made it much more attractive for individuals to make donations of stocks to charities and to be exempted from capital gains tax.

Finance committee  A lot of work in the health area is delivered in communities. Services to immigrants are largely delivered through not-for-profit organizations. One of the things we're finding in Alberta is the growing awareness of the human resource challenge and, as Mr. Alvarez mentioned, the federal government's initiative to increase immigration.

Finance committee  It has been helpful, but the impact of that is quite varied. I think the primary beneficiaries of that kind of change are very large organizations: universities; hospitals; foundations, potentially; and large organizations. There are certainly many organizations that have benefited, but the bulk of smaller organizations are not going to be the primary recipients of those kinds of donations.

Finance committee  That's one of the reasons we're recommending that what would be really useful is to take a more comprehensive approach to looking at what the government can do in terms of supporting the sector, not necessarily directly through financial injections, but through the various mechanisms that might benefit a broader range of organizations.

Finance committee  Thank you. I'd like to thank the chair and the committee for this opportunity to provide input regarding the government's budget priorities. My name is Katherine van Kooy. I'm the president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, otherwise known as the CCVO.