I'd be happy to. Thank you very much.
First of all, if I could be permitted, I'd just like to mention a number of things that happened preceding the review that set a bit of the context in terms of where we're moving with this program.
As you've heard, pilots have been launched in three communities that have a basket of priority perishable foods, like milk and vegetables, subsidized at a higher rate, meaning that the per kilogram costs of shipping those foods north are 30¢ now as opposed to 80¢ before. So we are now getting the data from those pilots that will be fed into the review to help us with our understanding of the difference that price makes in terms of people's choices. We need to do a little bit more work to understand what the nutritional impacts are, because price is only one determinant of consumer choice; of course, advertising and other things play a significant role too.
A number of things have happened with respect to the eligible foods. Some of the less nutritious foods have been removed from the eligible list. For example, fruit-flavoured drinks that aren't fruit juice were eliminated from the list in 2004. We've eliminated shipments of food to certain types of businesses and government institutions, such as mining, oil and gas, and construction companies on the business side, so that we can focus our efforts on the people in communities who need it the most.
As was recommended by the Auditor General in her report in 2002, which reviewed entry points, the government chose to focus its efforts in 2005 on a particular entry point with a challenge, the Churchill entry point. This year we've added Winnipeg to the Kivalliq region as an entry point. We're seeing significant price reductions in that region as a result of that change.
We have developed and are very close to launching a revised northern food basket, which will be a more appropriate price monitoring tool, so that we can understand a little better the impact of this program on prices. Canada Post—this week actually— announced.... Formerly they had guidelines on shippers for packaging and handling to improve food quality. Those have now been switched to requirements on suppliers. So there are enhanced requirements and further guidelines.
So work is ongoing to continually improve the program.
In connection with the review, and as everybody on this committee has pointed out, it's a multi-faceted issue. We realized early on that we needed an interdepartmental effort on this. So an interdepartmental team has been assembled, as we mentioned in our introductory remarks.
On the accountability and governance side—and accountability is another theme of this committee—we've launched an internal audit, which won't be directed by me, but will be fully independent under our internal audit group, on the governance in INAC of this program. It will determine and make sure we have the appropriate measures in place so that we can assure parliamentary committees and the government that there are appropriate management controls in place and thus we can assure value for money.
We are finalizing our project plan, although some projects have been launched. Again, I would invite this committee to.... We'll be following closely the concerns of this committee so that we can, as appropriate, build them into our review plan. As I also mentioned, we have a $20 million supplementary estimate before the House right now so that we'll be able to maintain rates for shipping food this year while we're carrying out the review without having to increase rates, which would surely increase the price of food.