Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the question.
Yes, I do share your frustration. I've been here many, many times on this issue, and on those issues in different departments.
I think the people we deal with in government share that frustration. They may not articulate it in the same way that an independent audit office might at this table, but I'm encouraged by that, Mr. Chair. We are not having the arguments on values with the federal officials at all, and I think today you heard Mr. Wernick call for better tools. They need better tools. I firmly believe they want to go in the direction that we're talking about.
Of the four issues that we've mentioned as things that need to be fundamentally addressed, I would like to make the point that they go together. You can't solve this by simply legislating everything. The legislation needs to be related to something, and part of what needs to be done in all of those cases are service levels.
Mr. Wernick talked about providing finances to first nations and they're doing the best they can. Well, it's almost like asking “How long is a piece of string?” They're doing the best they can with the funding they get. Without a target and without these service levels saying this is what we're supposed to be doing and this is the funding to do it, everyone remains unsatisfied. No one's satisfied, and the member asking the question isn't satisfied. We're not satisfied. I don't think the bureaucrats are satisfied either. You need all four of those things.