Thank you very much.
One of the concerns that has been expressed is about the announcement of the cuts to tribal councils and other organizations that support first nations and delivery of services. One of the big roles that the tribal councils have been providing, including some of the technical advisory groups under the tribal councils.... There's one in Alberta that has been doing terrific work on advising on resource developments and safe drinking water.
The 2009 audit by your department found that the first nation lands and resource boards and other first nation entities were strained and struggling under trying to respond to the plethora of resource and development projects. Of course, we have...what's the one along James Bay? There are all those mining proposals, and then in northern Alberta, of course, we have massive developments in oil and gas. In the Northwest Territories, it's diamond mining. In Nunavut, it's mining exploration.
I'm wondering if you could explain to us where in the supplementaries we might find those cuts to the support for those organizations, and how the department is rationalizing these cuts, given that the government has said—and to their credit—that they want to move towards and support first nations in self-governance. How do they rationalize the decision to take away the funds from the very entities that are supporting the first nations in self-governance, in trying to negotiate good benefit agreements with the resource sector, and in trying to deal with the massive environmental impact reviews and so forth?