Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will try to be brief so that we can get to questions.
It's always a pleasure to be here and engage with parliamentarians on important issues. Indeed, the issues that are raised in this particular chapter have been discussed recently with two other committees of parliamentarians. The House committee on aboriginal affairs and northern development looked at this in June and the House committee on environment and sustainable development looked at it in May. Some of you may have had the benefit of those conversations as well.
I'm here to assure you that INAC takes the Auditor General's recommendations regarding its role in the Northwest Territories very seriously indeed, as we do all chapters. All Auditor General chapters and all audit findings are monitored very closely by the department's audit committee, and there's a follow-up process for making sure that people are pursuing the commitments in these action plans. We have developed a formal action plan to address the recommendations in the report. We provided copies to the committee in advance. Rather than go through it item by item, we'd be happy to take questions after the presentations.
As often an issue at this committee is coordination across federal departments, and as you acknowledged by inviting four accounting officers to appear at the committee this morning, there is a responsibility for implementing key measures across several departments.
I do want to emphasize, Mr. Chairman, that there is coordination and accountability through mechanisms such as a deputy ministers committee that I chair, and assistant deputy minister committees that Mr. Borbey chairs. We work closely with other federal departments and agencies to make sure that we sustain development in the Northwest Territories.
Of course it's not exclusively a federal responsibility. That's why we have to work very closely with the northern public governments and aboriginal governments. Some of the recommendations touch on that.
In terms of the pace and rhythm of development in the north, there are things we have more control over and things we have less control over. Government can't control the world price of oil or commodities, nor can we control the negotiating position of people who are across the table with us at various tables. However, the federal government does play a central role in ensuring that a strong and effective regulatory system is in place so that all players—private sector, territorial and aboriginal governments—can carry out their responsibilities in regard to development in the Northwest Territories. We work to provide territorial and aboriginal governments, in particular, with the tools they need to participate in these regulatory processes.
The Government of Canada, after this report was concluded, tabled an action plan on northern regulatory regimes. It was announced by Minister Strahl in May 2010, and it builds on previous efforts to create a strong and prosperous north that realizes resource potential while at the same time safeguarding environmental and cultural heritage.
It's a key component in the overall northern strategy of the government. The 2010 budget action plan, just this spring, identified the north regulatory processes as a priority. There was increased investment in environmental monitoring, both in the Northwest Territories, which is a subject of this report, and Nunavut.
Through this year's budget the government committed $11 million over two years for the streamlining of regulatory regimes in the north and more than $8 million over two years for community-based environmental monitoring and reporting on baseline data collection.
The recent announcement, just this summer, of support for increased research and monitoring to inform offshore exploration activities in the Beaufort Sea, just off the Northwest Territories mainland, also demonstrates a proactive approach to sustainable economic development. The Beaufort Sea initiative will address all regional concerns and provide information that will assist in the planning for future oil and gas activities in the offshore.
Beyond and above those specific funding agreements for this initiative and the ones that were referred to in budget 2010, the federal government of course transfers very significant funding directly to the public government in the Northwest Territories every year. To give you a sense of the scope of that, in the current fiscal year the Government of the Northwest Territories will receive over $1 billion in transfer payments, targeted support, and trust funds, which is an increase over previous years.
Those resources provide a foundation for the public government in the north to develop initiatives to sustain development in the territories, but we need to work together and focus on increasing the on-the-ground capacity, so the territorial governments and aboriginal governments have the tools to support and implement these initiatives.
With these measures, public and aboriginal governments in the north will be better equipped to assume their part in sustainable development in the north. For example, and this is a subject in the report, they will have the tools needed to develop modern land use planning. The federal government agrees that land use planning is a tool for balancing investment and development opportunities with environmental stewardship and community goals. We will be providing the support to aboriginal and territorial governments in this process.
By investing in the regulatory regimes and working to implement the action plan on northern regulatory regimes, the federal government intends to ensure strong, capable northern regimes that will reassure northerners and all Canadians and our international partners that development will take place, but in a responsible and sustainable manner.
Our specific action plan from INAC will allow us to respond to a number of the recommendations in the Auditor General's report, and we can touch on that later. And as I mentioned, you'll find those in the action plan that was submitted to the committee. We'll work with our partner departments along the table with me to address the recommendations. We play a chef d'orchestre role, coordinating federal departments and agencies on the northern strategy, and we accept that coordination responsibility and hope we can discharge it. We're committed to seeing the Northwest Territories, as you alluded, Mr. Chairman, realize its full and true potential as an economically healthy, prosperous, and secure region of Canada.
Merci beaucoup.