Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The criteria that has been used for evaluating proposals has been highly dependent upon the proposals being submitted by youth for youth, although adult groups could be sponsoring these particular proposals. They have been targeted at certain types of initiatives, but one of the things that the department recommended early on was that if the proposals funded ongoing positions, it would not be very long before the youth initiatives fund would be consumed on a yearly basis without having new money available. When we listened to the concerns expressed by Members of the Standing Committee on Finance about the lack of awareness, we became very much aware that perhaps we had not really gone out very actively to all communities in the north to make them aware. Staff have visited several communities and several good projects have resulted, but we are going to be doing a much
more concerted type of advertising and we will be working with our regional staff to become more aware of the program and assisting community groups and youth groups in submitting proposals.