Yes, I feel that we have fairly effective mechanisms. The deputy ministers committee meets every couple of months, and below that we have two ADM-level committees. One looks at the northern strategy writ large, and another one looks more at science issues and preparations for the research station.
That is essentially the dry run for what gets taken to the deputy ministers committee. We try to have various categories of issues, so one set does implementation. Every meeting we try to highlight one or two issues and see how things are progressing to make sure that those things the government has already committed to are actually progressing along the timeline that is expected by the government.
The other set of issues is really forward-looking, because the strategy is evergreen and we hope it will go on for some years. And we haven't done everything. We haven't populated all the pillars to the same extent, and so there are still some gaps. So this deputy ministers committee, with the support of the ADMs, is looking really at what the gaps are and what the possible policy solutions are that, should the window open, we would want to bring to the government.
As well, in support of the ADM-level committees, we've set up a number of ad hoc working groups to deal with specific issues. For instance, shipping and transportation would include three or four departments. We've inserted people from my team onto each of those groups so that we can maintain an overall eye on the collective business, and also to ensure some sort of systematic or consistent alignment with the strategy itself.
The feedback we've been getting from other departments has been very positive. People feel it's an inclusive approach, that it's a fairly light approach. I don't have tonnes of people tracking things. We're a fairly nimble team and we have to depend on the other departments, and so we have to work really closely in partnership.
We're very proud that last year we actually got a very strong assessment from the Treasury Board on our management accountability framework, the horizontal management for the northern strategy. We are seen as an example of strong coordination, so we're pretty happy. We think it's working well.