Mr. Chairman, I'll ask Mr. Campbell to elaborate in a moment, but in terms of potential solutions dealing with how the federal government funds these services, there are two things that come to mind.
Earlier this week this committee heard from the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Comptroller General, and they talked about how the main estimates process works, how the expenditure management system works. You heard that, I think it was, two-thirds to three-quarters of federal spending is statutory, where the legislation sets out a certain level of funding requirements and departments and individuals entitled to that receive it automatically because it doesn't need to be voted on annually.
One very good question that the government, this committee, Parliament, could consider is the extent to which it wishes to use statutory funding for providing services on first nations, and I believe the preface to the report talks about that. A lot of these services, education services, are going to be required this year, next year...and one option is to look at changing the basis of funding from voted appropriations to statutory funding.
The other one is the one we've talked about, the use of the contribution agreements. I look at the annual contribution agreements to provide education services on a particular first nation. It's done every year. And there's lots of bureaucracy around that. You have to get the agreement renewed every year. By the time the first nations actually get some money, a good part of the year might be passed.
I know that Michael and his department are already moving towards the use of multi-year funding agreements. If that continues to be the basis of funding--the use of contribution agreements--then absolutely the use of multi-year funding agreements makes incredible sense.
And the other issue, as I said, is funding through statutory appropriations rather than voted appropriations.
Mr. Chairman, if time permits.... It doesn't?