Government Operations committee  For us, it would probably be centralizing mail pickup and doing away with the northern community once-a-week delivery. If people were told, “From now on, you have to go pick up your mail in Hudson, and you have access,” I think they would really be against that.

Government Operations committee  Yes, I agree. It seems to be the way governments are going now, with Hydro One and other ministry agencies being privatized for a consideration.

Government Operations committee  For our community, the elder has to walk up the stairs, pick up his mail, and take it home, and for the people who are at home, who can't—

Government Operations committee  We don't have home delivery, so they get somebody, a third party, to write a letter or pick up the mail.

Government Operations committee  No, we have access to Internet and you can pay your bills right through the Internet, but people need to be taught how to do that. A lot of elders don't know how.

Government Operations committee  When I did speak with the part-time postmaster, she indicated that the premises where we operate our post office are an inconvenience. They have to bring all these postal packages and heavy bags up these stairs to the small cubicle where they hand out the mail. I think that part can be alleviated by ourselves.

Government Operations committee  I received a letter one time from the liquor control board. They wanted to do some kind of program whereby they would deliver liquor right onto the reserve—as if I needed more social issues to deal with. To me that seemed like bootlegging, but on a legal basis, and I didn't really care for that kind of idea.

Government Operations committee  Just Canoe River. There used to be a lot of people there, but there are only two people now. However, the other three communities all have road access. What I've been finding is that a lot of the people in a northern community who receive a one-time delivery on Wednesdays are going to Hudson, which is a half-hour away, and getting mailboxes set up there.

Government Operations committee  Well, what I wanted to do was perhaps look at the contracting itself and at bidding on that contract. This particular contractor has had the contract for decades and decades. If we were successful in getting the contract, that could augment.... Perhaps the postmaster could pick up the mail in Hudson and take it to Lac Seul, and then we could do everything in one shot rather than piecemeal.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I'll talk a little bit about the community itself. There are 3,400 people on the band registry, of which, I would say, a thousand live on reserve and two-thirds are off reserve and sort of scattered throughout the region. We get only once-a-week mail service, so that's four times a month that we get mail brought in, usually through a contractor air service.

Government Operations committee  Thank you.