Thank you very much, Chairperson.
First of all, thank you to all the presenters who have come here today. I think certainly what we have just heard from StatsCan, of the information that you are able to gather, is very disturbing and very sobering in terms of the picture you present.
We're dealing with a very major, critical emergent issue here. I almost feel like there are two worlds. There's the world that we see here, and we hear what government departments are doing and we hear all the acronyms and the programs, and then there is the world out there, where reality is and where aboriginal women are facing a lot of violence. There's systemic discrimination. There's the impact of colonialism. I think one of the issues we're trying to get at here is, what's the disconnect?
I would like to begin by asking the departments we've heard from—which is basically two—if there are any external audits your departments do to actually measure the effectiveness of the programs. When you read the briefs, there are millions here and millions there. Sometimes it's handed out in very small amounts: $30,000, $50,000. What kind of independent assessment goes on to tell you whether or not what you're doing is effective?
I think common sense tells us that there's still a huge issue, so something with the picture is not right. What is it that's not right? Do your departments know what it is? Or is it just people working in silos and we don't yet have a grasp of what the underlying issues are and how to tackle them?
There are many questions in there, but I think my main one is, do you actually have outside audits that examine for you what it is that you're doing? And is the community involved in that?