Human Resources committee  It's a great point. When you look at this and you look at absenteeism, just as you look at correctional facilities in Saskatchewan, there's a large aboriginal component in both of those cohorts. When you open it up and deal with the root causes, you get away from culture or race in identifying the problem and you get into culture or race in identifying the solution.

Human Resources committee  You know, that's a great question. It's better to reverse-engineer it and have a look at how we can make a positive change. When we started to look at this from a multi-agency perspective and looked at the correlation with criminal activity, it became everybody's responsibility.

Human Resources committee  Yes, it's estimated at between $500,000 and $1.2 million on this project.

Human Resources committee  That's correct, for 22 children.

Human Resources committee  Yes, I can't see any problem with that. As long as it is lawful, obviously, which we're taking for granted, why would we restrict not-for-profits? Obviously, they're governed. There's governance in charge and there are reporting requirements, including how they report and how they get back to their stakeholders or their board.

Human Resources committee  I would add that anything we're looking at in relation to it right now is costed back in the formula going forward, as Don said, if it's small enough and the intermediary is not involved. I think, in something like this, the other thing we haven't really spoken about but could go on at length about here is the status quo in relation to social costs and social services costs.

Human Resources committee  Greetings, Chair and members of Parliament. Let me begin by thanking you for the opportunity to speak to you today about Saskatchewan's interest in and movement toward social finance. I will provide my thoughts and will advise you on some of the initiatives we are working on in our ministry, as well as in the Government of Saskatchewan, and give input on some of the areas where I think our federal government can help us on this journey.

Public Safety committee  Well, I think you're bang on. First of all, it's a realignment, and at the end of the day you need to make sure you're doing everything, with a cradle-to-grave approach to intervention and prevention, and at the end of the day you also have to do the stuff downstream. The commonsensical approach is that if you take stuff out of the system....

Public Safety committee  It's a very good point. When you look at the things we experienced going through this, getting it up and running—for over two years now—as I said earlier, it was the balance piece. The role of the federal government is actually very similar to that of the provincial government.

Public Safety committee  It's a great question. We do not have the integration that you guys have. We are looking at the entire system, including the transport of prisoners. There is a whole mechanism there around safety. It's obviously an area of high risk; I am sure we are all aware. One lawsuit costs millions, and it's all about the care of the individual or the client.

Public Safety committee  No. I'm just here if there are any questions.

Public Safety committee  Yes, I'm here.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely.The strength of this is its link to community priorities. A community dictates what its priorities are, the things that are most sought after. What you can get here when you really get into this is that you can now align your CBOs and your service providers. I'll take the region of Prince Albert, where the three top areas they aligned had numerous CBOs and NGOs in those agencies, but not one was working on the three top priorities.

Public Safety committee  That's a great question. Keep in mind that all of these agencies still work autonomously; they're all still working in their own jobs. What the hub and the COR are designed for is this: all of those agencies have the ability, when they've exhausted what they've been trying to do in their own ministry or their own agency....

Public Safety committee  The file's not dropped until the risk is reduced and professionals are comfortable with where it's at. Let me give you an example. I'll take 45 seconds. A 14-year-old girl comes into the system, comes through education, a kid who was a straight-A student but is now having trouble, falling asleep in class, hardly attending whereas she never used to miss school.