Gathering Strength is an integrated government-wide plan to address the key challenges facing Canada's Aboriginal people. Following an initial section on reconciliation of historic grievances, this report describes initiatives in the four areas addressed by the action plan: (1) partnerships (all schools received public awareness materials; students and teachers participated in cross-cultural programs; Aboriginal language and culture programs were funded and conducted; federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of Aboriginal affairs and five national Aboriginal organizations met for the first time in 2 years; and national and regional partnership think tanks were conducted); (2) governance (legislation for the Nisga'a Final Agreement was passed; 86 land claims were settled or negotiated; and over 100 professional development projects were completed for Aboriginal administrators); (3) new fiscal relationships (93 percent of First Nations communities completed community accountability and management assessments; a national model was completed for the Canada/First Nations Funding Agreement; the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association awarded its first Certified Aboriginal Financial Manager designations; and Canada, Saskatchewan, and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations completed exploratory fiscal relations and governance discussions); and (4) community, people, and economies (132 Income Security Reform demonstration projects were conducted in 354 First Nations communities, and numerous First Nations communities participated in initiatives related to community-based housing, water and sewer systems, and policing agreements). A final section describes progress on the Northern Agenda, including creation of Canada's third territory, Nunavut, in 1999, and various agreements related to land claims, self-government, transfer of programs and services, and job creation. (TD)

For thirteen years Jennie Bond has been treading in the footsteps of the Royal Family as the BBC's royal correspondent. In that time, she has covered many momentous events - among them, three marriage breakdowns, Camillagate, the Queen's annus horribilis and the death of the Princess of Wales, whom Jennie had met privately on a number of occasions. Jennie recounts these meetings in material that until now has never been in print. This is a lively, entertaining book that will cast the Royals in a new light as Jennie takes the reader behind the scenes of events at home and on tour.

Provides that where the annuity payable under the Act exceeds the Civil List expenditure for the year, the excess may be paid to the Royal Trustees to be accumulated by them and applied to meet deficiencies in future years.