Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was a request from the last government that the PRO is working on. The request is still out there. I don’t know if we’ve had any feedback from committee as to what areas they would want to see covered.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a fund that we use to work with Aboriginal governments. Instead of dealing with individual meetings, we split it out amongst the seven Aboriginal governments. I believe they are all in the neighbourhood of $50,000. So this year we parcelled it out amongst all the Aboriginal governments and the money has all been given out. Once it’s approved, it will be. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I was going to say as soon as possible, but I think a better idea is it’s our intention to meet with the office of the Auditor General to get more background and insight into his recommendations. I would expect that probably within six months we will be able to have some idea with where we’re going with this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My previous view was that I thought we had sufficient oversight. We have an audit committee that is chaired by a number of deputies and involves the Audit Bureau. We have a number of other checks and balances. I communicated that to committee; committee felt that was unacceptable. We agreed with committee and are taking steps to provide the necessary oversight to address all of those shortfalls that the Member has read out to us. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

There could be a number of different ways to do it. I think, first and foremost, we have to decide on which approach we’re going to take. If we take a delegated approach, then we have some discussion paper approach we could have. We are working on one outlining our perspective with regard to land use, so sustainability framework. Similarly, if we go with mirror legislation or through the MVRMA, I think there will be limited opportunity to change it because of the fact that it’s premised on land claim agreements. I think the best avenue would be through our Land Use Sustainability Framework...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Native Women’s Association is moving and so the money is moved from a contribution to a grant, I believe. It’s the same dollar amount; it’s just how it’s broken out. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, the Member is correct; that is our expectation. Right now implementation planning will sunset 2013-14 and April 1, 2014, is the effective date. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.