Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sure.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll try to give you a first approximation answer, Ms. Neville, and I may have to turn to my colleague the assistant deputy minister, who follows this more day to day, if I don't do a good job of it. As you know, the Mackenzie Valley pipeline is a private sector project going th

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. We've provided the clerk with copies of my remarks, which I promise will be brief. I'll move through them quickly to maximize the question time for the committee. You've introduced my colleagues, but let me just note that Peter Harrison has joined the

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If there are any follow-up questions, or anything where there's a little bit of extra paper or for people to come back and explain things, we'd be happy to talk to the committee clerk.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The first comment I'd have to make is that these kinds of decisions about the so-called machinery of government are the Prime Minister's to take, in terms of what goes under which portfolio and which department.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There has been a trend towards that, and I think the committee's views on which way to go would probably be very helpful to the government. The flavour of the 1990s was to try to move aboriginal programming out into other departments precisely to avoid them being ghettoized in on

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What has happened, case by case, is we have picked up the Métis issues when the Office of the Federal Interlocutor was moved by the previous government into our portfolio. We've created an Inuit Relations Secretariat, and so on. The people most affected were consulted on every on

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's a very big piece of training that's under HRSDC, and the ASEP and ARDA programs as well. I think the challenge for us as officials and for ministers will be to make sure that the pieces of economic development, what we do, what HRSDC does, fit together.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm aware that they're up for renewal, and the minister of HRSDC and the deputy are working on the renewal. A lot of what my officials do is they just work day in and day out with the other departments, and we take the responsibility for trying to bring some coherence and leaders

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The current program falls under the purview of the minister and of myself. It will remain intact. Nobody will be transferred and offices will not be relocated. This is a matter of accountability. This program manages investments worth anywhere between $30 to $35 million per yea

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Rescol educational website is a program that was first set up approximately 10 years ago. I do not recall the exact date. The program is aimed at making various facets of Canadian society more accessible through the Internet.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There had been programs to finance Internet access for schools, community centres, and the volunteer sector, etc. There is still much to be done in the reserves and isolated communities. Perhaps satellite technology will accelerate things. Therefore, this program is for access

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Actually, these programs represent an increase. We have basic programs. If memory serves me correctly, there is about $100 million. The problem that I foresee is one of scale. We have very useful programs relative to planning, developing business files, small projects, etc. The

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Such is not always the case in parliamentary committees.