Mr. Chairman, thank you for the invitation to attend the proceedings of the standing committee.
I'm the national chief for the Dene Nation, but also the Assembly of First Nations' regional chief for the Northwest Territories, so I have a number of hats that I have to wear.
Actually, a lot of what I will say this morning will complement what Ms. Rabesca Zoe just commented on. There is an Assembly of First Nations-Canada fiscal relations table that was set up approximately a year ago and the whole initiative is designed to look at the funding arrangements between first nations and the crown. As you're probably aware, we don't entirely know how much money is annually set aside for us. It is commonly called Indian money that comes from the Treasury Board, which essentially comes from the wealth of the land, not from taxpayers' dollars. The difficulty is that we don't know exactly how much money is set aside each year and then we don't know where the money goes. We know some of it goes to the provinces, some to the federal government, some to the territorial governments, and then some to ourselves.
Part of the exercise is to look at that and help to streamline those dollars to our communities, so that we get the dollar value for the money that's supposed to be allocated to us. That whole exercise is in play. There was a recent announcement that you may have caught this summer between the AFN and the Indian affairs department where they announced that they're going to initiate the ability for our people to carry over surpluses from now on. What has happened over the years is that we're never able to carry over surpluses, so you find that, at the end of the fiscal year in March, everyone is trying to spend because they don't want to send money back to the federal government.
That'll provide more stability, security, and long-term financing, so that we're able to carry on our own affairs in a much more comfortable way. That's one of the recommendations. There should be a lot more. Right now, there are engagements taking place across the country with that committee. We will have one later this month, here in the north, and we'll bring our concerns forward at that.
A part of this is also related to the relationship we have with the territorial government. As you're probably aware, our people have relocated into communities in the last 40 to 60 years and prior to that, the territorial government assumed authority over our programs and services. Therefore, in competition with the federal government, there's always somebody taking care of our affairs except us. The Tlicho government is really the only government in the north that is governing themselves. That is only four communities out of 30, so the great majority of us don't have that ability to govern ourselves, although we're trying to strengthen this government-to-government relationship that we have. Since the territorial government assumes that authority without our agreement, it makes it very difficult for us to plan and to make our own communities function the way we went them to, so that's an ongoing struggle that we have.
One of the good things that is also happening with this government is that they've agreed to have a federal policy and legislative review that you're aware of. It is headed by Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and a number of other ministers. They're looking at old policies, practices, and legislation, like the Indian Act, and they want to come up with new ways of dealing with us.
We're quite pleased to see that because we've just recently gone through this whole exercise of devolution in the Northwest Territories. It was not planned out well. It was forced upon many of our communities. We want that as part of this review because to date, there are at least 15 or 16 communities that have not agreed to the devolution of authority from the federal government to the territorial government. The big reason is that these people are all at negotiating tables and are trying to work out a political and fiscal relationship with the crown, so that whole body of legislation has to be reviewed as part of this.
We're not going to come to you and ask for money or tell you how to allocate it, but there needs to be a realignment. There's a reason the federal government allocated monies to our people, from the early days. It's a federal commitment. It's an ongoing commitment from the Treasury Board. We need to straighten out the process, so that funds are given directly to our people and there is no more middle man, whether the allocation is done through the Department of Finance, or Indian affairs, or the provinces or territories. The arrangement needs to be with us. If you can help to understand that, it may take some work with—is it the Auditor General's office? I get mixed up with the titles. In any case, a number of departments will need to work together on this.
Those are the comments I wanted to make. I'm also quite pleased to have you in the north. .