Luxembourg will be organising "gender training" for the members of the Interministerial Committee responsible for monitoring the programme.

The Eastern Canada interdepartmental marine operations committee was revitalized under the chairmanship of the Coast Guard, Maritimes Region, and has now established links with the Interdepartmental Marine Security Working Group and the Pacific interdepartmental marine operations committee.

Senator Andreychuk and I have been over this ground before, and we now know that there is the Inter-Ministerial Standing Committee on Child Rights. It exists, but some years ago there used to be a quite effective inter-ministerial working group on children that was very helpful at the time of the Victoria summit of sexually exploited youth.

We have, however, agreed with the Auditor General's remark related to the interdepartmental committee; we are going to reconvene that committee and have it look specifically, in the context of today, at what role interdepartmentally would provide the best value for money for the government.

(Return tabled) Question No. 510 Ms. Christiane Gagnon: With respect to interdepartmental committees, is there or has there ever been an interdepartmental consultation or communication committee whose membership includes the Department of Environment, the Department of National Defence and/or the Department of Justice and that dealt with contamination of the soil or water table in Valcartier, Quebec, or contamination of property belonging to Canadian Arsenal (Industrie Valcartier Inc./SNC Tech Inc) and, if so: (a) what is or was the nature of this committee; (b) what is or was its mandate; (c) what were its objectives; (d) which other ...[+++] departments, if any, sat on this committee; (e) who were the individuals sitting on the committee; (f) did the committee’s membership change at any point and, if so, who was added or removed; and (g) are there any reports on the committee’s activities and, if so, (i) to whom were the reports sent, (ii) were the reports sent to the legal services units of the departments involved, (iii) when were the reports sent to the departments’ legal services units, (iv) who asked for the reports to be sent to the departments’ legal services units?

Committee members were informed that an Interdepartmental Aquaculture Steering Committee, chaired by the DFO, has been formed for matters that require consultation and discussions between them.