We quite agree that there are far too many reports. In our 2002 audit, we tried to find how those reports were being used by the department and we discovered that it made use of only a very small number of them.
At the time, the department had accepted the idea to streamline those practices, to get rid of duplication and to operate more on a risk basis. I am extremely disappointed to see, four years later, that very little progress has been made.
However, I believe that this should have been relatively easy to do. As mentioned by Mr. LeMay, there are only 600 First Nations. Why not input all the data on those First Nations in a database that could be used to for all the programs? At the time, the department said that it agreed with the recommendation, and it is saying now that it agrees. Your committee might ask the department to develop a detailed plan of action that it would review, and it could then follow up and ask for a progress report to make sure that what should be done has been done.