I think I went over a little bit of this ground last week, so if I'm being repetitive, forgive me.
I think part of it was being aware of the obligations, because we tended to have one agreement after another roll in, and people were not fully aware... especially with a lot of staff turnover in departments. So we've created a database. It does sound like process. I know there are people who think these are process answers, but they're actually fairly important in terms of accountability, in knowing what the obligations are and who has them. Some of them are very specific and finite—a land transaction or whatever—and some of them are more in terms of the spirit and intent of the agreements, the kinds of issues that were raised in an earlier question.
We have tried to establish very clear guidelines telling people who join these middle management jobs or line jobs that this is what they should expect in the area of claims obligations. We have provided training for about 1,500 or 1,600 federal officials on this. We're working with provinces to make sure there isn't a lot of back and forth on whether it's a federal thing or a provincial thing. And we have a database that tells people very quickly where the treaties are and what the rights and assertions are of aboriginal groups in the area.
So I think these will all help, and we have created mechanisms that bring very senior people in the departments together to deal with problems quickly. I think one of the frustrations that was expressed was that it would just take so long to work its way up the chain in the department and back. Issues were often dealt with once people were aware of them, but we had to speed up the turnover time. We now have committees at the assistant deputy minister level, and I've got deputy minister contacts I can raise the issues with, and I do. Generally, when issues are raised with other departments, the departments do spring into action and see what they can do to resolve them. So I think we have some momentum in this area. It's not enough; we haven't completely dealt with it.
I'd like to take a few seconds to say emphatically that we think the communities that have modern agreements are doing better than the ones that don't—and there's a cost to the country of leaving land claims sitting there unresolved as well, which has to be taken into account.