Public Accounts committee  I'd be happy to address the member's question. Whenever we've completed an audit report, we do make recommendations. In this case, there is a recommendation that specifically speaks to the need to be measuring progress, which is not too inconsistent with the notion in the govern

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I think that's a very fair statement. Whereas in the past we've done audits of grants and contributions, where we've actually been a compliance-focused audit on all the requirements, in terms of following a grants and contributions agreement and whether they were doing

Public Accounts committee  I can say that first of all it was an independent panel. It consisted primarily of former deputy ministers who understood government and governance very well. Certainly the recommendations they made rang true with what we had already understood. For example, in the first nations

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I'd be pleased to answer the question. There's actually a two-part answer to this. We have had a chance in the last couple of days to review the Treasury Board Secretariat's action plan in response to our recommendations. They specify in there, as I understand it, th

Public Accounts committee  I can add to what the Auditor General has already provided. In our report we do have a brief table, exhibit. 2.1, that speaks to the three main chunks of the government action plan, if I can put it that way. The Treasury Board had to provide leadership, to enter into policy ref

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to address that question. I think there were a few key things we saw that were very different from what had been observed in previous years. One of them was with respect to a very strong level of interdepartmental committees. At the deputy minister level,

Public Accounts committee  Yes. What we point out in the chapter is that not only is it important to establish criteria for determining the risks, and then having a risk-rating scale and doing it, but there has to be some form, as you say, of a challenge function. Just to highlight that a little bit, if

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'd be happy to address that question. I think there are a couple of things to appreciate. First of all, if the first nation is strictly under the Indian Act, then in effect they don't have the option of creating an environmental management agreement under the formal EMA proces

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Fair enough. Then, when we go broader and ask why there aren't more environmental management agreements under the FNLMA being entered into—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right. There are land codes, which is the first step, but at the end of our audit, you're right, there were not any, and I imagine that's still the case. The issue is that once they do that, they now have to have their own enforcement regime. They have to pass their own l

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Right now we do have a whole series of different regimes that people are under. With comprehensive land claims, if the capacity is there and the resources are there, then they can be developing their land in very different ways, but if you're under the Indian Act, it's a lot hard

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's not a very strong provision. I should also add that we pointed out in our 2009 chapter that, in fact, we have lots of these regulatory gaps. I think the third element that needs to be understood is that if first nations that could and might and want to be under the First

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I'd like to add a little bit to that. First of all, the Indian Act has very minimal provisions. In effect, it's meaningless, basically, to enforce them. It's a $100 fine or something.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Perhaps I could ask Kimberley Leach to answer your question.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to take a stab at addressing that question. With first nations lands, one of the conditions for entering into a land management act is to have an environmental management agreement in place, but we were finding that in order to do so, the first nation wou