No, Mr. Chairman. The comments that have been made by the honourable Member... The issue of educational funding has been a matter of discussion of myself and my colleagues. We see it as one of the outstanding issues the federal government has to resolve. There are some situations that make it difficult; for example, the fiscal situation not only here, but the fiscal situation across the country.

It is also interesting to note, Mr. Chairman, that the Department of Indian Affairs had their budgets remain constant, yet when it came to transferring money, our budget was reduced. So you have to look at it in that context as well; whether they are passing on the resources to allow us to do our work. That is a political matter and my view is that some of the concerns are legal and constitutional.

I want to make one point. The Member made a comment about the issue of trying to define treaty rights. His arguments and comments prove exactly why it is very difficult to be very definitive and explicit in our legislation. There is so much in terms of the definition and interpretation that we, as aboriginal people, give the whole issue of education rights in treaties and in our land claims agreements, that that has never really been resolved between the aboriginal people and the federal government. That's why it's very difficult to define that in our legislation.

The other point is that the legislation itself is the framework by which we administer and manage the educational system. So the whole issue of collective rights and treaty rights is really something that is in another agreement and should be resolved between the appropriate parties and the federal government. So it makes it difficult for me to be definitive. I think your arguments prove the reason why it's so difficult to do it.

The other point that I wanted to make to the honourable Members, and generally the comments I want to make so that people are clear; the fact is that based on even the manner in which education funds are being managed for aboriginal people across the country, there are more and more restrictions being placed on bands because the authority has been transferred to them. Therefore, the kind of ability that

Indian Affairs had at one time is no longer there. But there area lot more restrictions, for instance, even for band members who do not live on reserves to access funds for post-secondary education.

But these are the rules that are changing across the country. Ours have generally not changed that substantially. In fact, I pointed out to Mr. Koe earlier that one of the problems we're encountering as a result of federal policy change is that we are not being held responsible for delivering educational programs for treaty and status Indian and Inuit in the other provinces and in the Yukon. So we are being pressed to accept responsibility for that. But in our formula calculations and in our population census, they are never considered in those numbers. So it's kind of an awkward way of doing business, but the fact is that they're forcing us to assume responsibility for that without evercompensating us for that responsibility.

So I think the honourable Member has made some good points and, thus, raised the issue. But I think one still has to recognize this as the administrative management document for our educational system, and those additional issues really have to be resolved outside the document. I appreciate the concerns the honourable Member has raised. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.