I would love to do that, as an accountant, to be honest with you, but I don't think I have time for that in my six minutes, so let's move on a little bit.
There was a fellow by the names of Ken Coates. I know we're all familiar with Ken Coates. He's a distinguished fellow and director of the aboriginal peoples project at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and he's a Canada research chair in regional innovation at the University of Saskatchewan. I think most of us in the room would consider him a relatively non-partisan voice on these issues. We've had him at committee a few times, representing different people here.
He wrote an article in August 2022, which was just a few months after he released a report. His article was specifically in response to your report. He said:
Put bluntly, Canada is not getting what it is paying for—what’s worse, the massive spending is not improving lives in Indigenous communities.
He went on to say that Canadians believe:
If Canada spends billions on Indigenous affairs, it must mean that we care deeply about First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. But it does nothing of the sort. While headlines emphasize dollar amounts, the statistics that tell the actual story of Indigenous well-being—around employment, health, housing conditions, suicide rates, violence and imprisonment, language, cultural revitalization—are much more sombre. When spending vast sums fails to make a substantial difference in many communities, the federal response is too often to double down and spend even more, in the absence of understanding what actually works to improve the lives of Indigenous peoples.
My question is really quite simple. Do you agree with that assessment? He was responding to your report.
As a follow up, is this common to other departments, or is it unique to CIRNAC and ISC?