Evidence of meeting #124 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was results.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Yes, and we are working with our friends who are negotiating those agreements.
I can give you an example of what we see with the self-government agreements. For example, if you look at the Atlantic schools, you'll see an annual report that is there on the web, and it does include classic information such as enrolment, absenteeism and graduation rates.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
I guess what I'm getting at—and I had hoped that this week there would be an answer—is that it's great that there's going to be information posted, but it's not going to mesh with information from British Columbia or from other provinces.
Let's say a new group is looking at doing the same thing as in the Anishinabek agreement. They're not going to have the ability to look at.... They'll be doing it in isolation from everything else. It will be separate, stand-alone data.
Maybe I need to go to Mr. Berthelette.
You indicated that as we get to that transfer relationship, basically parliamentarians.... Once it's like a province, we hand the money over. Do we need to continue to worry about comparing data results when we're at that stage? To what degree do parliamentarians need to be focused on this issue as we go through this transition?
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
4:25 p.m.
Assistant Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General
I think it would be incumbent on Parliament, Madam Chair, and the members of Parliament to always be interested and concerned about what goes on with respect to indigenous peoples' relationships with the rest of Canada.
While we may arrive at a point where we have a government-to-government relationship, I think that means there's a role MPs will continue to play in maintaining, reinforcing and sustaining that relationship.
In a short answer, I see a role for MPs and Parliament continuing into the future, and I see that role as being one of supporting the other government and helping them achieve their goals.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
You have 15 seconds.
All right. We're moving on to the next questions.
I understand it's split time. We're going to start with MP Robillard.
4:30 p.m.
Yves Robillard Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, Lib.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I thank the witnesses for their presentations. My first question is for the Assistant Auditor General.
As part of your auditing method, you visited and interviewed seven first nations communities in two regions.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
Sorry; excuse me. I wasn't aware that our hour was up. Our friend MP Cathy McLeod has pointed out that our time has run out. Unless MPs wish to change it, we addressed this issue when we began the meeting.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Georgina Jolibois NDP Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Can I ask for a point of order to get a chance to submit some questions to the various departments to get a chance to get written responses? I just want to submit the questions.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
We have done that before. I think that would be within the committee's general practice, absolutely.
I am so sorry; we can't continue with further questioning because we've actually hit the one-hour timeline.
On behalf of the committee, merci, thank you, meegwetch for coming out.
Obviously there is a lot of passion and interest in this topic. ESDC got off easy, but I'm sure we'll be back to you as we look at the next study.
To the Office of the Auditor General, thank you so much for raising these important issues.
We're now going to move into an in camera session.
I want to thank all of our guests and those attending for coming out.
The meeting is suspended.
[Proceedings continue in camera]