Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I believe that's the current discussion and debate happening around whether or not policing services are an essential service and how that impacts this program. I can again speak to the siloed approach. How this is put forward is not working for indigenous people.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This is where policy-makers, like yourselves, can influence the outcome of the debate on this topic.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We definitely know the ones we've looked at, so we can for sure go back into our files and see what we can provide to you. However, I believe that to have a more comprehensive answer, you should absolutely speak with Public Safety Canada. They would be able to give you that answer.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can provide you the support that I—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can absolutely provide you the evidence I have that supports the statements we've made, but I also believe it's a great question for Public Safety Canada.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If you give us two seconds, I think Jo Ann would like to add to that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to answer that question. I would have to direct you to perhaps Statistics Canada. They might be able to give you some information on demographic movements. I don't have that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm aware of the legislation that's trying to have policing services declared essential, but there are different levels of policing services at different levels of government. As a citizen, I would appreciate policing services as long as they're done well.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I agree with you that a review should be done by independent bodies. When it comes to urban centres, however, policing is a provincial matter. What I can look at as the federal Auditor General is the program where the RCMP provides services. However, to actually look at the quality of the services would need to be looked at provincially or territorially.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's why we highlighted as a finding in our report that money is going unspent. If I compare that to the first hour of this hearing, when talked about housing, there isn't enough money being spent there, but here there is money available. When it comes to ensuring the safety and security of a community, it's important to use those funds as they were intended, and even more so under this program.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it's important to recognize the two different agreements here.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's correct. If we speak to—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can tell you that there are approximately 680 first nations and Inuit communities across the country. We looked at those that are covered by the self-administered program—about 155 communities—and then we looked at those covered by tripartite agreements—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As I mentioned earlier, there are a number of communities covered by these two types of agreements, and we did a sample. We visited and talked to certain communities. I'll have to ask Mélanie if she can tell you which communities we actually spoke to. However, it wasn't the community service we were looking at; it was the service provided by the federal government to these communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Of course it would increase trust in the police system. We could increase that trust by having true negotiation of tripartite agreements. Right now, as I mentioned, the auto-renewal of agreements is really a barrier to having regular conversations with communities. That's often what we hear when doing our audits.