Public Accounts committee  I could, yes, sir.

Public Accounts committee  It has been ten years, sir.

Public Accounts committee  First of all, the role we play is a coordinating role. We need to work closely with our regional counterparts, our regional offices.

Public Accounts committee  There are currently 21 land claim agreements in place--modern land claim agreements.

Public Accounts committee  I have 55 staff.

Public Accounts committee  That's just the beginning, sir.

Public Accounts committee  In the case of tendered contracts, we will indeed....

Public Accounts committee  Provisions in contracting, including this one, are important elements of all land claim agreements. In the last year we have begun to really engage Treasury Board and Public Works and Government Services Canada in developing approaches to procurement that understand the provisions of these land claim agreements.

Public Accounts committee  I don't believe we know the dollar value in the Inuvialuit settlement region, no.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not sure. We can look into that.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. In December 2007 we obtained our legal advice from the justice department as to the definition of “reasonable share”. The next step is to consult with the other signatories to the agreement to see how close our minds are on our interpretation of “reasonable share”.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not aware of that specific case, but what I'm saying is that this land claim agreement puts in place structures to deal with development proposals.

Public Accounts committee  That's a very good question. One of the things I want to highlight for the committee is that many of the obligations inside a land claim agreement are ongoing in nature. One of the objectives, when we sign a land claim agreement, is to put in place structures in the north that allow for joint management of resources and joint review of projects.

Public Accounts committee  If I may, the whole challenge of untendered contracting by the federal government is a difficult one, because it involves things right down to individual acquisition card types of acquisitions. So as a federal government, we have had some challenges in coming to grips with how to define “reasonable share” and how to even track or know which companies are having services purchased from them.

Public Accounts committee  Deputy, perhaps I can tackle that. As a clarification, I believe that senior officials, in pointing out to the Auditor General's staff the question of who owned the principles, were simply quoting from the agreement, which states: “The basic goals expressed by the Inuvialuit and recognized by Canada in concluding this Agreement are...”.