Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Okay. Thank you. On K-to-12, indeed we have been actively looking at how to improve K-to-12. Some of that work resulted in $70 million over two years being identified in budget 2008. It's for two essential purposes. One is to look at introducing student testing and things like t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. The best way to reduce risk is by having trained operators, because then you remove any operator errors. So we've found that investing in the circuit rider training program and things like that is the best way to reduce risk. We are also initiating a complete engin

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much. In March 2006 there were 193 high-risk drinking water systems, and this number has been reduced to 85 systems now. Also, there were 15 priority communities that have been removed from the list of 21. There were initially 21 priority communities that had both

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The first one is protection of health and safety and assets. The second one is health and safety improvements. The dike would be a health and safety improvement, for example. Third is recapitalization and major maintenance, which is to extend the useful life of an asset. The four

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There is a Treasury Board authority that says that. However, because of provinces, particularly Alberta, talking to us and first nations talking to us about this and our looking at this issue, we are not implementing that this year and we're looking into the matter further. We a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's definite, across Canada. This has been conveyed to Alberta first nations and we've conveyed that to the province. I just can't confirm whether we've conveyed it to all provinces and first nations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll just mention the 13 first nations that are negotiating. At a meeting about two weeks ago, Canada came forward and presented a financial offer. First nations are taking that away to consider how they want to respond to it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, they presented an offer to them, in terms of.... I can't say what the amount is. It's up to those 13 first nations to determine whether it's sufficient to be able to carry on. They agreed to take it away and come back with it. In terms of the two organizations that will be

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's one of them, though, that.... It comes into effect as soon as the first first nation has concluded its jurisdictional arrangement. It will be up and running, so they are there. When I say the two, FNESC is there and the authority will be there. Its funding, the funding fo

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, indeed, the plan to fix the dike is a multi-year project. Certain investments were made this past year for this year, but there are further investments that will need to be made to improve the dike, so we're working with the community to have that done. The ch