Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We work together. In fact, the department works on all.... For any policy coming forward, there is a policy committee, which all.... The executives in the department look at them and are looking for exactly the things you're talking about. I would say the challenge is that we don't do the delivery on the ground.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'd have to say there isn't. That would probably be a good idea, as we do a gender lens. I think we also do an environmental lens on things. It would probably be a very good idea to have a child-first lens. I think that's something the government could very much do.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a very good question, Ms. Crowder. I will start by saying that we could probably improve our coordination. But just like the health outcomes, there is a real recognition that poverty and other reasons are at the base of a lot of poor outcomes. That's why, for example, in Canada's economic action plan, there was money for water, schools, housing—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can't speak in detail about what happens in every child and family service agency. But with our move to the enhanced prevention approach, we were trying to have more money available for agencies so that they could focus on prevention. One way to focus on prevention is to have strong individuals—I don't know what you call them—child and family service workers, social workers, working with them.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Just to answer that, the community makes decisions. As you know, the communities make decisions on housing. They have housing authorities that have the ability to decide on the priority in housing. The government, as you know, provides the funding for that purpose. I agree. It probably needs better linkage to make those decisions happen.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In our department, I'm the ADM responsible for housing, water, schools, the social programs. And that was done deliberately to ensure that when those policy initiatives and programs are developed, we are trying to do that. I admit that we could certainly do a better job, probably.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thanks for the question. When we looked at how the federal government could go about implementing Jordan's Principle in working with provinces, what we found was that the service provision issues that were coming were related to children with multiple disabilities needing multiple service providers.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No. Actually, what happens now is that in those provinces where we have arrangements, we use a case conferencing approach. When a case comes forward, you don't know whether it will be a Jordan's Principle case, meaning one in which there's a dispute between the various parties.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, we can breakdown these figures for you by province.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is over two years.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. Head start is a Health Canada program, so I have to say I'm not completely up to date on what their plans are, but we'd be glad to raise that with Health Canada and get back to you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for inviting my colleagues and I to appear before your committee, Mr. Chair. We have come here today to bring your members up to date on our continuing efforts to improve First Nations Child and Family Services on reserve. The Auditor General's report of May 2008 raised many serious matters concerning the management of First Nations Child and Family Services and we developed an Action Plan to respond to the Auditor General's recommendations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Part of the funding agreement with the first nation is that the teachers employed in teaching must be accredited by the particular province in which they teach. There is one first nation group organization that's in British Columbia—FNESC—which is going to be working toward developing a certification that would be recognized, but it would still be recognized by the province.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much for your question. Perhaps I can start by explaining that within the amounts set out for post-secondary education, approximately $22 million go to a program for post-secondary institutions. It involves a combination of aboriginal and non-aboriginal post-secondary institutions.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To my knowledge, there isn't any agreement with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the United States. There is one community where children attend schools in three different jurisdictions, and that's Akwesasne. They go to schools in Ontario, Quebec, and the United States. In those cases, it's the children who are physically in the United States who attend the schools there.