It's a tough question for me to answer. I've only been with the government since November, when I was appointed special adviser on aboriginal women's issues. Prior to that I worked in our community for the last 15 years.
When you're working on the outside, the basic perception is that everybody is working in isolation from one another and there's no concerted effort. Had I been presenting in that form, I would have said, “Yes, there's absolutely no connection between the federal government, the provincial government, our communities, etc.”
However, being now in the midst of the provincial government, I will say that there are all kinds of things going on, both federally and provincially. There are FTPs on violence against aboriginal women. I know that in Manitoba we have an interdepartmental group that works on violence against aboriginal women and on missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls, so there is a connection, but is it as much as we need to do? Again, we need those resources, but I think it's shifting away from working in those silos.