Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister and staff, for coming here today.
I'm going to ask four questions and then let you answer. For whatever you can't respond to today, perhaps you could supply the information.
The first question has to do with Jordan's Principle. I think you're probably well aware that in New Brunswick a report came out recommending that INAC and the province reach an agreement prior to September 1, 2010, on how to implement Jordan's Principle. New Brunswick has been musing about going to court to define their responsibilities and their liabilities.
So given what's pending there, what work will the department undertake to ensure that there are no gaps in services if the court defines New Brunswick's responsibilities as less than what they're currently delivering? There could be a gap between the federal and the provincial governments.
The second question I have is on the aboriginal financial institutions. I think you're probably well aware that the department's own report back on March 12, 2009, “Toward a New Federal Framework for Aboriginal Economic Development”, talked about the importance of the role of aboriginal financial institutions and said they should be enhanced. Yet when the loan loss reserve initiative was put out there, the AFIs were not invited to participate. Why were they left out of that process? How much money did the five players who were awarded the loan loss reserve actually loan out in the period that they've been responsible? That's question number two.
Question number three kind of bridges the supplementary estimates (C), the throne speech, and the budget speech. There was $30 million announced for post-secondary education and I wonder if the Province of B.C.'s First Nations Education Act is going to be funded out of that $30 million, because there have been ongoing negotiations about the funding, as you know.
My fourth question is around the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. I just think it's interesting that the money has been sunsetted, and although some organizations will continue to be funded until 2012, some will lose funding as of the end of March. Yet in the supplementaries, you indicate the need to continue funding the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, and there's new money in the new budget.
In a 2009 report that the department commissioned, it talked about the success of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. They were highly praised in that report. In fact, one of the recommendations was that the “Government of Canada should consider continued support for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation...”. They note in this report that funding under Health Canada won't cut it, because they're not the same kinds of programs. So I wonder if you could indicate whether the government will consider implementing the recommendations from the evaluation that it commissioned.
Those are my questions.