Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's because we have no measures of life expectancy for the non-status or the Métis, and that's one of the components. We can't measure it, but we're working on it. We're putting a lot of effort into it with our Health Canada research colleagues and also with our Statistics Canada research colleagues.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Are you asking that question on the basis of numbers you are seeing?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The number refers to the proportion of people who have a high school diploma. The first line refers to the life expectancy in years, whereas the two following lines refer to the rate of functional literacy and the proportion of people who have a high school diploma. The last line refers to dollars.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You touch on a few aspects here. The first one is the consistency in the definitions. Yes, I agree with you, there have been changes from 1871, the first census, to right now, 2006, but since 1986 there has been relative consistency in the way that data has been captured by Statistics Canada in their censuses.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a personal opinion. The myth is based on living conditions. A non-aboriginal person living in the city, watching TV, watching a documentary or story in the news about living conditions in first nations, can obviously notice the differences. Their thinking is that when folks have an opportunity, they will move.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're coming to that. That's good.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Since 1986 the urban areas have displayed a net loss. When we look at different census periods, I can go back to 1986. Over the last 15 years, their net migration for the cities is negative.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The bubbles refer to 1996-2001. That's my mistake. I forgot to add that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  So migration is not a big component of the growth overall, obviously, but neither is it in cities. The third component is Bill C-31. In 1985 there was an amendment to the Indian Act to eliminate the discriminatory clauses that had resulted in the loss of status and entitlement for the majority of first nations women and their children.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We've done a lot of work on Bill C-31.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We have many documents, and all of them are available on our website. The only ones that are not available are the ones that are still in editing or translation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, they're on our website.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Not necessarily, but I don't exclude that possibility. In fact, the majority of movements take place off-reserve. And there is a lot of movement.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The on-reserve population has indeed increased by 10,000 individuals because of the number of people coming to and leaving reserves.