Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are 300 first nations, which are half of the communities in all of Canada that are attached to our act. Of those 300, 103 have been awarded FNFA membership. There are another 197 to go, so the amount of monies we will likely be borrowing in the future will be increasing, which means that the impact on their economies and the towns and cities around them will also increase.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, commercial paper is a secured debt. It's backed up by FNFA's name, so all of the safeguards in our act, all of our money in the bank account, which is called liquidity, and our credit rating back it up. It is the same as the Government of Canada raising money, the provinces raising money or the cities raising money.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We have two types of loans. Our first loan is called a line of credit program, and that's money available every day. Currently we raise that through a banking syndicate. The chartered banks raise the money on our behalf, add one per cent for their own profit—they are profit-based—and then we re-lend to communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't know what's needed on Canada's end. The Bank of Canada has opened up to protect issuers, the provincial and municipal issuers, so that if they cannot raise the monies, the bank will buy what's left over to ensure that the amount they're looking for can be raised. We are looking for the same treatment.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Arnold, if I have time, we are starting to see phase two of first nations becoming involved in economic development. Instead of investing as individual communities, they are starting to group together, which will allow the purchasing of higher equity amounts and larger businesses.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. One example is in Ontario. A smaller community had an opportunity with a FIT version 1 contract to be an equity participant in a wind farm. The amount of revenue they will receive from that wind farm will transform their community. We loaned them $117 million. They became a 50% owner in that community.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The timing is perfect for this question. Next week we are looking to issue our seventh debenture into the capital markets. We work the same way a provincial treasury works. We work with all six chartered banks, plus Laurentian Bank, plus Casgrain out of Montreal. We were looking to raise close to $230 million next week.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Under our act, to get the comfort of both the credit rating agencies and the investors in the capital markets, we are mandated, when we go to make a loan, that the revenue streams pledged to support that loan are a multiple higher than what's needed to pay the loan. It's called a debt coverage ratio.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a wonderful question. Point two in Ernie's opening comments talked about establishing a commercial paper program. The purpose of any loan is to get the interest rate as low as possible so the repayments from the first nations communities are as low as possible, which means every dollar will go further.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Ernie. With our 63 members having about $940 million, we've had a pretty good [Technical difficulty—Editor]. The communities are able not only to manage projects well but to plan, maintain and look after them. Part of what we're looking at is not free handouts but putting infrastructure in place that will be maintained for the useful life of the asset.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Let's start with Harold and you can work your way up.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sorry.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm going to take a bit of a different approach. In the short-term, right now, we have 207 or 211 first nations. That means there are another 400 first nations that are not part of it. The geography or land base in Canada is huge. The ability to travel to communities within our budgets is limited.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Committee members, thank you very much for your time this morning. My presentation is going to focus on up-front safeguards. The First Nations Fiscal Management Act is a modern-day equivalent to what provinces and municipalities have enjoyed for a long time.

Finance committee  You can't. It would be but you can't piggyback. For example, I ran the MFA of British Columbia, which is parallel to the Alberta Capital Financing Authority. It's black and white in its act who its members are. Its members are municipalities, regional governments—