My question is for the Government Leader in the Senate. I didn’t have a chance to ask it of Minister Morneau yesterday, so I’m posing it to you in the hopes of getting an answer from the government.

In October 2017, I asked the parliamentary budget office to cost out full implementation of the Indigenous women’s equality amendments to Bill S-3, now the law of Canada in the Indian Act. My question is on the 2019 budget and the December 2017 Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report, entitled Bill S-3: Addressing sex based inequities in Indian registration. They calculated the cost for eliminating sex-based inequities once and for all in the Indian Act, concluding they are much lower than the scary, high numbers the department had tossed about.

Senator Harder, under the effective leadership of Indigenous senators, the Senate has demonstrated consistent vigilance on following through on the Bill S-3 promises.

Would you please clarify for us whether, in the 2019 budget, the funding assessed by the PBO for $71 million in one-time administrative costs, plus $407 million a year in ongoing costs to ensure the full implementation of the promise this government made in Bill S-3?