These policies say a great deal about our priorities and our values. Nowhere is this compassion more evident than in the voluntary sector. There are millions more doing volunteer work on their own. They help others at every stage of life, from the nursery to palliative care. Volunteers participate in every field of society - arts and culture, the environment, sports and leisure, and justice, to name a few.
Most volunteers work away from the spotlight.
They are quiet heroes. Their compensation is the satisfaction that they get from helping others. As a government, we have recognized that the voluntary sector represents the third pillar of our society. It generates important economic spin-offs and creates hundreds of thousands of paying jobs. The Government of Canada is committed to building a new relationship with Canada's voluntary sector.