Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister and departmental officials, for coming.
In your speech you touched on two things I want to ask questions on. Regarding page 83, items included in the supplementary estimates, I specifically want to talk about the provincial education and maintenance of personal care homes. I'll ask both of my questions and then let you take the time to respond to them.
The first one has to do with the personal care homes on reserve. This is not my question, it's just a statement. The Oneida Nation of the Thames has a licence to build a long-term-care facility, but they're having trouble finding capital money now. We're hopeful that under the infrastructure funds that are announced for the next fiscal year that may be possible. But once the facility is built, they will need an operating grant, and you're specifically referencing the operating grants in your speech and in the supplementary estimates. I wonder if INAC will be able to help pay for preferred funding for elders who were not eligible for CPP prior to the seventies. I think that's going to be an issue for a number of the personal care homes. I don't know if part of this money that's being transferred is part of that kind of thing.
The second piece is around education. I went back to the performance report ending March 31, 2008, and that report references the tripartite agreement with British Columbia and the fact that it has come into effect. Then in the report on plans and priorities, once again the B.C. tripartite education agreement was referenced, and in the supplementary estimates it talks about those transfers of provincial tuition dollars.
I have two questions under education. First, could you give us an update on the status of the B.C. tripartite agreement? It is a thread throughout these documents, yet I understand that as yet the full funding arrangement hasn't been put in place, and part of the sticking point is the provincial funding.
Second, when you appeared at the committee before, you talked about the new education funding being proposal driven. My understanding is that there is a small line on those proposals that requires provincial sign-off. I wonder, in the context of signing tripartite agreements—and I think a number have either been signed or are under way that would involve first nations control of education—why you would continue to require provincial sign-off.
Those are my three questions. Thank you.