Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Actually, in all jurisdictions we have provincial rates for the various types of care and we reimburse those actual rates.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We do.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For first nations child and family services, we have increased the funding over the years. We were spending $193 million in 1996-97. For 2009-10 our funding has gone up to $550 million. We work very much, in child and family services, with other programs we have, such as the family violence prevention program--$29 million is being spent to assist families in that program--and early childhood development programs.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For Quebec, we do have a tripartite group in place that is working with the first nations on reviewing the business plans and trying to get those in place. It is taking a little bit longer in Quebec to actually get those plans in place, but we are working through those and we're confident that mostly all of the resources will be used this fiscal year.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In Quebec, as I mentioned, we do have a tripartite group. We work very much with the first nations commission of Quebec and Labrador to work with the agencies to make sure that these are functioning. In every jurisdiction we work jointly with the province in trying to have regular meetings with the agencies to review progress against the business plans they have put in place and to assist agencies when some problems might have been identified.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In the development of the business plans we take a step back. We develop tripartite framework documents, and in them are guiding principles around culturally appropriate types of services that will be delivered. They outline the broad goals and objectives for moving forward on prevention, which definitely includes culturally appropriate mechanisms or means of delivering that service.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When we go out and talk to the first nations and the province on a particular approach, we do an analysis of what is happening in that particular jurisdiction, how they deliver prevention, and what types of services are being provided. We look at provincial salaries. We look at caseload ratios.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To date, we have not had an agency that's come back to us on that. We've been able to accommodate the needs.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What we've done with the formulas is that we have looked at the average percentage of children in care in a particular province. We've based...part of the formula is fixed for the core operating of the agency. We had decided that when we looked at this, we needed to provide some level of consistency per agency.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Alberta evaluation is just in the process of being finalized. However, the results from that evaluation say that it is making a difference. It is pointing to some issues of development of capacity. The capacity is taking a little bit longer to develop in the agencies and communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're increasing the funds incrementally over the years because we're finding that it's taking a little bit longer for the agencies to provide workers and to find workers in the communities, and to build their capacity up to a level to provide enhanced prevention.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think the protection workers will review the case and make an assessment on what the risk is, the safety for that particular child. If it's deemed that it is going to be a high risk, then they will take a look at whether they need to be apprehending these children.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, we don't have that figure. What I also wanted to mention is that when we talk about aboriginal children in care, those may be served by the provinces as well. The stats that we've provided are those related to first nations children who are served by agencies for children on reserve.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it was mentioned previously that we are in the process of starting an evaluation of the Alberta model, so we're hoping to get more detail. However, anecdotally, the province advised us within the last six to eight months that they've already seen a shift to families accessing family enhancement quicker than when they introduced their model in the province.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's no doubt that when we started with Alberta, there was the framework that was developed. It was based on a provincial business plan, and we have used that as an example as we have moved forward in other jurisdictions. It's a little bit of a delicate situation, however, because each jurisdiction wants to develop one that is more appropriate, and there is some sensitivity that we not actually implement the Alberta model across the country.