The impact of approval and payment delays on Department of Canadian Heritage recipient organizations : Impact des retards d'approbation et de décaissement sur les organismes bénéficiaires du ministère de Patrimoine canadien

HOUSE OF COMMONS CANADA THE IMPACT OF APPROVAL AND PAYMENT DELAYS ON DEPARTMENT OF CANADIAN HERITAGE RECIPIENT ORGANIZATIONS Report of the Standing Committee on Official Languages Steven Blaney, MP Chair NOVEMBER 2009 40th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION Published under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons SPEAKER’S PERMISSION Reproduction of the proceedings of the House of Commons and it [...] The main finding by the Committee, the details of which are described in this report, is that the impacts of the time taken to approve applications and to pay the authorized amounts are serious and directly threaten the ability of community organizations to accomplish their mission. [...] Despite the gravity of the findings, the members were in favour of the measures put forward by the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages to speed up the process and facilitate the administration of applications. [...] The Committee returned to this question in connection with a report tabled in June 20086 and considered three major topics: • The level of funding for organizations • The administration of accords; and • The governance of collaboration accords, in particular the partnership between the communities, the organizations they represent and the Department of Canadian Heritage. [...] Findings submitted by the organizations At the meeting held on June 16, 2009, members of the Committee asked the organizations speaking on behalf of official language minority communities to consult their members in order to determine the severity of the slow processing applications and the late payment of approved amounts.