Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
HRSDC has an important history of working with the government and aboriginal communities of the NWT. We acknowledge that the territorial government and aboriginal communities are best placed to design and deliver programs and services that meet their unique needs and priorities. We will continue to work with them to help ensure that all Canadians in the NWT, including aboriginal people, benefit from economic development and employment opportunities.
In support of that objective, we fund a number of programs and initiatives that contribute to the development of the labour force. Some of these relate specifically to aboriginal peoples. Chapter 4 of the Auditor General's spring 2010 report, as you've heard, looked at two of those programs: the aboriginal human resource development strategy and the aboriginal skills and employment partnership program.
Ms. Fraser's report noted that HRSDC had established clear objectives and targets for these two initiatives and that we're reporting on those objectives. It also suggested that we work with aboriginal groups and the government of the NWT to assess the impact of aboriginal skills training programs to ensure that they're leading to improvements in the skills and employment prospects of aboriginal people over time. That recommendation is one we agree with. We acknowledge that the longer-term impact has not to this point been adequately assessed. Let me take a minute to outline what we are doing to address this issue.
On April 1 of this year, the department launched the new aboriginal skills and employment training strategy, with funding of approximately $1.6 billion over five years. This new program is our flagship aboriginal labour market program, and it's the successor to the aboriginal human resources development strategy that was assessed in the Auditor General's report.
ASETS, the short form of that program, focuses on three new strategic priorities: supporting demand-driven skills development; fostering partnerships with the private sector and the provinces and territories; and placing an emphasis on accountability and results. Through these priorities we are strengthening our ability to assess the impact of skills development and training activities. Under this program, we will be working with aboriginal service delivery organizations to develop strategic business plans that set out skills development and training activities and targets. The strategic business plans will include comprehensive plans for the short, medium, and long term with a focus on developing partnerships and on demonstrating employment outcomes.
The new strategic business planning process will also be supported by enhanced data collection and reporting. We've streamlined and identified more appropriate indicators and outcomes so that we can measure them and better demonstrate the difference the program is making. These measures will contribute to a reporting system that improves the communication of successes from these investments over time.
In support of aboriginal service delivery organizations, HRSDC will also be producing regular analytical reports to measure program effectiveness. These analytical reports will be shared with the aboriginal service delivery organizations on an ongoing basis, which will improve their capacity to undertake their own analysis and to tailor programming based on local labour market information.
Together these measures outlined in our action plan will improve the department's ability to assess the impact of aboriginal skills and training activities on an ongoing basis.
Let me also emphasize that we have tried to be responsive to economic conditions as they have changed. Under the economic action plan, support for the aboriginal skills and employment partnership program was increased by $100 million. Let me assure the public accounts committee that we will continue to work with aboriginal communities and our partners to assess the long-term impact and to ensure that programs are leading to improvements over time, because we are committed to helping aboriginal people get the skills and training they need to take full advantage of the economic activities and opportunities in the north.
Thank you very much, Chair.