Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I could, in my closing remarks, I'd like to make one point of clarification.
The federal government has the responsibility to pay for services for children on reserve. Those child and family services can be delivered in two ways: either through provincial governments or through first nations agencies. We note in the report that where there are agreements with the provinces, the government basically reimburses the provinces for the cost of providing their services.
Over time, as there has been a shift to preventative services, the federal government would be reimbursing the provinces for that. Where the funding formula comes in is with the first nations agencies. The funding formula, as we've mentioned, has not been changed in 20 years. It is largely skewed towards putting children into care, and it really does not pay very much, as the deputy has indicated, for preventative services.
Mr. Wernick referred to a report we made in 2006, I think it was, about some of the underlying issues, and one of the causes or one of the issues that we noted was sustained management attention to programs. Quite frankly, one has to ask why a program goes on for 20 years, the world changes around it, and yet the formula stays the same, preventative services aren't funded, and all these children are being put into care.
I think we can be somewhat hopeful when we look at the Alberta model, which is recognizing that services have changed and funding based on that example is going to go up quite significantly. All I can say is that I would hope the rest of the provinces and the funding formulas would move quickly so that these children, who really do need services, get them as quickly as they can.