Thanks very much.
I find it interesting that we're talking about accountability and transparency. It's something we haven't seen much of lately.
You talked about ongoing requests from band members as what enacted this, but you said that you don't have numbers. If we only went by ongoing requests and looked at the ongoing requests for funding for education or parity for the child care workers, those haven't been acted on, yet we choose this one here.
I want to clarify something. You've often used the word “clarification” as opposed to “amendments”, so I just want to make sure that the word “clarification” means that you're open to amendments and that you will certainly make some amendments to this document.
In addition, the AANDC website says:
The Tribal Council Funding program funds tribal councils to provide advisory services to their member First Nations and to administer other Indian and Northern Affairs programs. Tribal councils are institutions established voluntarily by bands. In 2006-07, the program transferred $44.9 million to 78 tribal councils serving 471 First Nations. Five advisory services have been devolved to tribal councils: economic development; financial management; community planning; technical services; and band governance.
Can you tell me how the announced cuts to tribal councils' funding will affect the ability of smaller bands to meet the requirements of this legislation?