Yes. Thank you for the questions. Indeed, the organization was established a little over two years ago, in August 2009. Its current annual budget is $44 million. That's $30 million of what I would call program funding. Those are the contribution programs that we operate, some of which I made reference to earlier. There is about $14.5 million that we use to cover off our overall operating costs across the three territories we operate in.
It was an extremely good question on the hires, because you are right, it is technical work and you do need to understand and know the north. CanNor's core, if I can call it that, actually came from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Those people and those programs came over and provided us with a solid base of understanding of what was going on. To complement that, we did things like establishing a northern projects management office. Don James, who is sitting next to me, will give you a good example of the small but deep technical expertise we have to bear on projects like that. You are right that you have to understand the regulatory process. You have to understand how the private sector itself understands major project development in order to bring your value-added to the process.
There is no question about it, we have a fairly seasoned team on the ground, and it's growing and maturing as we go through time. The bringing together of that aspect that I talked about whereby we do both the pathfinding and supporting of the major projects with the on-the-ground community economic development is definitely something that is unique to CanNor in its creation. That's the objective: to ensure the major development does have the impact and is spread throughout communities in the north.
As I said, in that respect it is important that we have that kind of team in place. You asked about the $15 billion in investment and talked about the response from government. I am sitting here as part of that response from government. The government felt it was extremely important that it have that kind of focal point. I attended the same session that Janet did last week in Edmonton, which was quite remarkable in terms of the breadth of organizations and individuals attending it. They said what you said, actually, that it's about time and it's a good thing there is an organization completely dedicated—because INAC did have some of these activities before that we do right now—and very much focused.
I am not a regulator. Our job is to make sure the regulators are doing their jobs and to make sure industry understands that to the best extent possible. Is it really adding value to the process? I can only tell you what major corporations have told me when they come into the office or speak to me at the large conferences. They say they love the fact that there is an organization out there that they can turn to that will provide them with clear guidance in that regard.
I will make one more comment on red tape reduction. It just flows from the previous comment on the question you posed. It is our job north of 60° to try to make sure we are keeping the entire system of federal government focused on regulatory streamlining and simplification. Again, I am not encumbered as the regulator the way my colleagues are, so yes, we get to push them and try to make sure we are maximizing that to the collective benefit of Canadians, understanding at the end of the day that it is running through a process that is legislatively established.