Thank you for the presentation.
This is an issue I think that we're experiencing across Canada. It's a little bit different in the north because our financial arrangements are a little different. However, we still have similar challenges. I think you did a good job outlining your policy, but the policy really means nothing if the funding is inadequate, if there are other factors that are out there that are triggering the situation.
I've had the opportunity to talk to many aboriginal leaders in my riding over the years. I worked as a band manager and so I've seen it from many angles. In the last while, the last 10 years, we've seen up to a 40% reduction in band core funding. It's leaving the band councils in the situation where they're trying to transfer money from one budget line to another just to cover crisis situations.
I talked to the chief in my community this weekend and he indicated to me that their band council has been in a deficit situation for 16 years and unless he does absolutely nothing, pays absolutely nobody, he's probably not going to get out it.
We have communities that are over a million dollars in the hole because they can't afford to operate their offices, yet they have a responsibility. The federal government has offloaded a lot of the responsibilities onto the band councils. It was, “you got your money, you look after your people”. It's a sink-or-swim situation and for the ones who have real challenges, once they encounter a deficit situation they can't seem to get out.
We have had studies done in the north by the Auditor General that have assessed our obligations and they gave us a failing mark on meeting those obligations for land claims organizations, self-government. We can't really point to that as a solution to our issues.
We've had the Auditor General do studies on funding to our communities because we don't have reserves. We have two reserves in the Northwest Territories and the rest are public communities filled with aboriginal people. The Auditor General said we're not meeting our obligations.
I wanted to talk about some of the triggers that we're encountering. I heard you mention some things, but I wanted you to focus more on adequate funding and whether there's any intention to reinstate some of the funding that was cut.