Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that the diagnostic on first nations education that is laid out in the Auditor General's report, in the Senate committee's report, in the report of the national panel on education is very clear. You know the results we're getting on reserve in K-to-12 education. Just pump

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As the minister said, if you combine the base budget in the program with what we got in budgets that were tabled since 2006, the total comes to about $3 billion. I'd be happy to provide charts and tables that provide the breakdown. Roughly half came from the A-based and half came

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can provide further information on the specific from/to on that number. I can assure you the department has always met and will always meet its duty to consult. There has been extensive and extremely expensive consultation on every piece of legislation this committee's had befo

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think there are ample opportunities for those representative organizations to become far more efficient. In the past, a lot of that was done 1970s style by getting on airplanes, going to hotels, and having long conferences, with lots of consultants and lots of lawyers. With new

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's very difficult to tell. The department has shrunk considerably. As you'll be aware, we peaked at about 5,200 employees. We're now at about 4,500. About 480 positions were eliminated in the deficit reduction action plan. Another 100-and-some left through Northwest Territories

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. This is very late-breaking news. The contract for construction was just awarded a week ago, so I can't guarantee that it's absolutely going to open on the day it says, but the project has been managed very carefully. With three construction seasons co

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is essentially the model that we've been working on for the last 30 years. You will be aware of the Auditor General's report of May 2011 that pointed to the deficiencies in that as a way of getting results. You'll be aware that the Senate committee recommended legislation. Y

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  —and you cannot have, to answer Ms. Sgro's comment, long-term, permanent funding commitments without a statute. It is much better to have statutory funding than not.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I could, as accounting officer, give you no assurances that that extra money would generate any results.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I was just going to say the health supports to people going through the adjudication process are provided by Health Canada. I'm happy to make inquiries as to this data on the crisis line and the health supports for people. Just to indicate where we are, the common experienc

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Very briefly, water regulations vary from province to province, as you would know. In B.C., they're different from those in Ontario. Some provinces chlorinate, while others don't, and so on. This could be done very quickly if we just went to the Internet and cut and pasted provin

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No. We get our money in budgets usually two years at a time or three years at a time. We try to have criteria for setting priorities. We have ranked lists. We assess them nationally and we do what we can with the money we get in each budget. We post the progress at least every ye

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It would be nice to have 10-year funding commitments. I've never had 10-year funding commitments. We would have had a long-term statutory funding commitment to K-to-12 education in Bill C-33.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly. Mr. Chairman, I have a general comment that might be helpful on a couple of the questions. There were a lot of questions about why didn't you just move money from one thing to another within the year, and it's a fair question. The basic ground rules are that once you

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It can.