Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, we didn't have any specific recommendations in relation to that, but we did talk to the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. Certainly our auditors visited all but one of the Inuvialuit communities during the course of our audit. In response to the question of what the committee might do, I would offer the suggestion of having the department come and speak to their action plan.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think Mr. Barrett will respond to that one.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. There's a lot in that question, and I'll try to put the points together in some kind of order. It's important to appreciate that a lot of energy goes into negotiating to get to the point where the agreements are signed, not only on the part of the government, but from the aboriginal organizations and groups involved.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, the economic measures review is mandated in the Inuvialuit Final Agreement. So it's not a might-do or a could-do; it's a must-do. Not only that, but it's a must-do every five years. So when we undertook the audit, we honestly looked at that kind of obligation and initially presumed we would find that had been acted upon and they'd be working on the next one.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. On the importance of the issue, these are agreements signed between the Government of Canada and other parties, including aboriginal groups. In this case it's the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. When we choose to undertake audits, the importance of the subject matter is one of the factors that sway those decisions.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. In our view, a strategic approach to implementing a land claims agreement such as this would include, among other things, at least having an inventory of what those obligations are, having a list of what those obligations are in relation to the federal government, and also identifying who among government is responsible for each of those particular obligations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I think it's important at the outset to make the point that whatever those performance indicators might be, they would need to be developed in consultation and collaboration with the other parties to the agreement. It's for the parties of the agreement to think through how they would actually measure the overall progress toward the fundamental goals of the agreement.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for this opportunity to present the results of our audit of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, chapter 3 of the Auditor General's October 2007 report. As you mentioned, I am accompanied by Mr. Frank Barrett, the principal responsible for this audit.

Public Accounts committee  As the Auditor General pointed out, I think a lot of energy goes into the negotiation and the signing of those agreements, and then they don't sustain that effort through to the completion of their obligations.

Public Accounts committee  It's only a portion of the runway.

Public Accounts committee  I can tell you it's just at one end.

Public Accounts committee  They handed it over, Mr. Chairman, and then it was handed over. Now they have to get it back, and they've signed an agreement. They need to come out with something that's acceptable to all the parties. Not that it would excuse them for not doing it in 23 years.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there were a variety of old assets belonging to the Government of the Northwest Territories. One of them included part of an airport apron. They hadn't drawn the line where they thought they had. So there was part of an airport that was included in what they thought was land with no encumbrances.

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, as a small closing comment, the question about the case law review, which we've recommended and which the department has undertaken to do, has come up a couple of times today. I would maybe suggest to your committee that when you avail yourselves of the department's action plan, that might give you a better sense of how they're going to go about that and how comprehensive it will be and whether or not it's actually going to be, as the member says, cumulative.