Mr. Speaker, in response to (a) and (c), the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, AANDC, 2011-12 report on plans and priorities,RPP, identifies a declining trend of full-time equivalent positions, FTEs, estimated potentially up to 770, over a three-year planning period from 2011-2012 to 2013-2014. These potential reductions are projected to reflect a number of programs that are sunsetting or coming to an end as part of the natural program lifecycle. These estimates do not presume or attempt to project future decisions, such as the extension of a sunsetting program, but merely reflect the current status in a program’s life cycle. As such, it is not possibleat this time to identify specific positions, program activities or employee status in relation to these potential reductions.
In response to (b), according to the Treasury Board Secretariat, attrition, often referred to as “natural attrition,” refers to separations, exits or departures, of employees from the public service other than departures under existing incentive programs or due to devolution and privatization.
Based on trends observed over the past three years, the projected rate of attrition within the department as a whole would be 10.21%. Note that this does not relate to reductions in the RPP as per the answer to (a) and (c), but rather to the normal attrition rate across the entire department.
In response to (d), the five year authority to implement the urban aboriginal strategy expires March 31, 2012. The department is currently working towards renewal of the strategy and until a decision is made by cabinet whether to extend this initiative, we are unable to comment on the human resource commitment for fiscal years 2012-13 and 2013-14.