Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I think everybody has a small PowerPoint that I've prepared, so I'll just go down these six points. The first point is that accountability appears to be a universal norm of good governance. I have never seen, in any measure of good governance, an

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Of course it's a government-to-government relationship. What else is it? I'd just say that the relationship between the various governments can be quite different. It doesn't have to be a relationship that is uniform across all the governments.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I won't repeat a lot of what Mr. Craig said, but I'll just add a few points on own-source revenue, which I mentioned in my last point. I think there is a clear tendency, where discretionary funding is involved—in the federal government, that would primarily be in the area of econ

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This comes down to what the level of transparency is here. I think the bill is meant to have a fairly high level of information in terms of own-source revenue. I cannot see a real problem for the business, such as a winery, if your financial statements indicate either total rev

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think terminating the funding agreement would likely be the absolute last resort. By the way, I've had an opportunity to look at what was then called the “intervention policy”. I'm sure you're familiar with the intervention policy. It's sort of a three-step process. This is w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With the magic number, the 168 reports that the Auditor General noted in 2002, I think, and in coming back several times, noting that the reporting burden hadn't been lessened...I don't see this type of initiative as having a huge impact on that. I think you should perhaps addres

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, of course, it doesn't. That's why I'm saying in my introductory remarks that this is a fairly modest initiative. Don't get your hopes up that suddenly by passing Bill C-27 there's going to be light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, there won't be light at the end of the

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  How could you answer that question other than in the affirmative? Of course, good accountability, as I said, is a universal norm. Transparency is absolutely fundamental to accountability. It's not the be-all and end-all to accountability. Accountability is a very difficult thing

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  A lot of things could certainly improve the situation. I really like certification systems. They are a tool that is being used more and more in public administration and indeed in administration in the non-profit sector. You even see them in the private sector. By certification s

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the notions about good governance is if you want it to be sustainable, it really has to come from the grassroots. It has to come from the folks themselves. I put this teaser out that there was one example of an amazing transformation in terms of governance—one of the very

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's my thought for the day.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sorry, I apologize for that long answer. I should have been much more succinct.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can get by.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I have written on several occasions...and I'd be happy to provide you with the publications, but first nations have an extremely dysfunctional governance system. It's hard to imagine anything more dysfunctional than what we have in Canada vis-à-vis this first nations governance s

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I support this initiative, for sure. Will it solve all accountability problems? No. I wouldn't mind addressing this government-to-government issue, because Ms. Sutherland raised it. Is that all right? I don't want to waste your time.