Human Resources committee  Yes, I can. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here.

Human Resources committee  Thank you.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It's certainly a pleasure to be here, and I thank you very much for the opportunity. I'd like to thank Mr. Cannan, our MP representative here in the Kelowna area, for inviting me to be a participant. My name is Robert Louie and I'm the chief o

Human Resources committee  Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Savage. Specifically, we've got a community services department located in our health and wellness centre. I am in one of the meeting rooms in this building, as we speak. One of the programs we have, for example, provides some of the basics of ge

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. We do have head start programs. We have an early childhood development centre, and in some cases we start right from the time the child is a baby and old enough to go into a facility. Our Westbank Child Development Centre supports that child th

Human Resources committee  Yes. We don't know the exact numbers, but we estimate just over 9,000 non-natives. Those are actual residents on the reserve. Our total membership is just shy of 700. We have five reserves, both on the west side of the Okanagan Lake Bridge and on the east side of the Okanagan Lak

Human Resources committee  We strive to provide opportunities here. Leasing of lands is one of the big steps we have taken. We provide a lot of 99-year leases. So our community members, including the non-natives, certainly having 9,000-plus population.... It started first with the development of mobile hom

Human Resources committee  I have to say thank you very much for that question. I just want to make sure that you're not confusing Westbank with Osoyoos, for example. Chief Clarence Louie is from Osoyoos. If I were to say fertile lands, they have the vineyards and the agricultural lands, whereas, yes, we'

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Martin. I go back to taxation. When I look at our property tax assessments and what we did in the early 1990s, we were one of the first communities in Canada to look at what then Chief Manny Jules was doing under section 83 with the amendment to the Indi

Human Resources committee  If I chose to do that in our community, or if a council wanted to do that in our community, on things like property assessments, then I and the council of the day wouldn't be in office. We focus on the non-aboriginals. A person who has a corporation, for example, can exempt thems

Human Resources committee  Housing is certainly a big, big topic. It guides council elections and it guides the will of our community. We are just in the process now of tabling a final community needs assessment, and housing is certainly part of that. So our council is focusing on meeting the housing needs

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Cannan. Yes, education is one of the hallmarks, one of the pillars, of what's needed in our community here, and yes, we do work with the Okanagan College, for example. One of our council members, Councillor Loretta Swite, is a board member there and has

Human Resources committee  Yes, I think we've had some fair amount of success. I mentioned the 1.25 million square feet of shopping centres. We deal with thousands of leases. We now have between 3,000 and 4,000 leases that are in place residential-wise. We've just signed an MOU with a developer where the

Human Resources committee  Madam Chair, I do have to leave in ten minutes. I have a roomful of our staff and outside consultants who are actually waiting for me to attend another meeting. Within ten minutes I have to attend that function. I apologize, but I have no choice there.

Human Resources committee  I believe it's greater than 50%, so between 450 and 480. That's the latest statistic I can recall. Our total membership is actually 680, or maybe 680-plus right now. Certainly more than 50% actually live and reside here on WFN lands.