Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I noted four questions—and I'll see if I can move through these quickly, Mr. Chair. I noticed the look. The difference between the two figures is pretty straightforward: it's the activity of other departments. Parliament gives Indian and Northern Affairs in the orde

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The response is positive, based on what I have heard at the Saskatoon event. There was a similar event in Quebec, at Mashteuiatsh. It is one of one of the most active areas, actually, in first nations country, if I can put it that way. In these discussions about economic developm

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is a fundamental question, Mr. Blaney. As accounts manager, I think that my challenge, and yours, as a parliamentarian, is to find the right balance between two principles. One of those principles is to be accountable to Canadian taxpayers for public funds. Are those funds u

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the opportunity to give you a progress report. It's a little bit of a coming-attractions trailer too, in terms of progress. There are two kinds of trends that happen in the organization of the Government of Canada over time. One is that things tend to collect at IN

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You'd have to give me a specific case. It would depend on what the program was, what the initiative was. Sometimes the program there—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  They would have made an application, we would have assessed it, we would have provided advice to the minister, and the minister would have made a decision on it. That's how contribution agreements work. We have over 5,000 of them. We wouldn't be giving them 12 months of money to

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can't comment on what Health Canada may or may not have done. You'll have to take that up with Health Canada. And I can't comment on a briefing note I haven't seen. If you'd like to table it with me, I'd be happy to write comments on it. In general, I guess I would answer with

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not quite sure how to answer that. There is an ongoing relationship with the people who tend to use the programs. We have 40 or 50 grant contribution programs. We have over 5,000 agreements. There was a problem last year, because the election and the new government led to som

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There is a difference between settling a claim on March 29 and settling it on April 3. We are talking about two different fiscal years.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Here is what we do. The maximum votes granted to us by Parliament totals slightly more than $6 billion. If we knowingly spend one dollar more than that, then I am in deep trouble. As the manager responsible, I cannot spend over that amount. However, by following the rules estab

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  All I can tell you is that all available amounts of money will be spent in accordance with the law and relevant policies. We cannot break the rules. There has to be a contract, a commitment, a settlement or a construction project. Within the rules established for our programs, an

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Funds set aside for claims cannot be spent for any other purpose. Together with our negotiation partners, we try to settle things, when possible. Yes, there are two, three, four tables with which we hope to achieve settlements by March 31. That does not amount to a lot of money,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, no, it is just that I do not know exactly where to start. The structure of the resource allocation process contains a number of votes. You have to distinguish between the funds that you, as members, allocate to us for operational costs—I am referring here to vote 1—and those

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, if you have a specific case, I'd be happy to drill into it. The capital program is essentially a pot of money that is available to be sent to first nations groups to build capital projects. It isn't actually managed as capital. It's essentially a contribution program. The

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not quite sure how to answer that. The project is a private sector project. It that will be decided on a commercial basis by the proponents as to whether they want to build it. They are going through the regulatory processes and environmental and social impacts and so on, and