Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Our annual budget is around $5 million.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's funded through the Department of the Environment.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It reports to Parliament, and Parliament can assign us duties, as they have under the Kyoto implementation bill.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is correct.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We currently have about 18, but we're in the process of declining numbers in response to budget cuts.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We had one, and his term has finished. We are seeking a new appointment from the north in connection with it. If any of the MPs wish to make recommendations to us, we'd be delighted.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I do see some progress on this, Mr. Chairman, and I say this wearing another hat, not the one I'm wearing here this afternoon. I chair the management committee for the international environmental standards association. The ISO 14000 series and the Canadian Standards Association a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In my paper I've laid out four, and in our report--I've filed both a French and an English copy of that report with the committee--we are looking at a few things that we think need to be addressed very quickly in connection with it. In connection with it, first of all, is the in

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sorry. I was just on my last phrase, Mr. Chairman. My apologies. Lastly, it has to come back to the community level.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In Nunavut?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  More broadly in the Northwest Territories, yes. And of course we've seen some of the mining residues of arsenic and others in the Yellowknife area, and we've seen a variety of others. To my knowledge, more work has certainly been done on the western Arctic than there has been on

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, that's true, but the issue is the separation between some of the chemical processes and some of the biological processes that we're dealing with here. Certainly in terms of trying to deal with the biological processes, as I tried to say in my opening comments, you see signi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, I think my colleagues on the panel here are a little more expert on the Nunavut situation. I've certainly visited Nunavut. In terms of our report, we were looking at the infrastructure issues; we were not looking at the levels of pollutants in the north, which cert

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a really good question, one that comes back to a couple of the points I tried to make in my presentation. Too much of the work on arctic climate change and adaptation is not focused at the community level, so it's very difficult for territorial governments and for first