Good evening, committee members. My name is Roland Morrison. I'm the chief of police for Nishnawbe Aski Police Service.
Nishnawbe Aski Police Service is the largest indigenous police service here in Canada. We have over 220 officers, and with civilian staff, we have nearly 300 employees. We are responsible for policing 34 communities within the Nishnawbe Aski Nation territory, which is situated in northern Ontario. Of the 34 communities, 23 are remote fly-in communities and 11 are road access. However, I would probably deem some of our road access communities as remote, because they are in remote locations.
NAPS is a member of the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association, and we are also an IPCO member, which is the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario. We are a self-administered police service, and we are a signatory to a tripartite agreement with federal and provincial governments under the first nations policing program.
I want to thank everyone for the opportunity to speak here today. I am sure if this opportunity had gone out to the other chiefs, they would be more than welcome and very happy to be here before you, especially to talk about the enforcement on first nation reserves.
I'm aware that there is various justice programming in first nation communities across our country, from Tsuut'ina in Alberta, to Kahnawake in Quebec, to Akwesasne in Ontario, and also most recently to the Treaty 3 area in northwestern Ontario. I don't know particular details on the programming for these communities. However, what I can speak to you about is what is occurring in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation area.
What we do for enforcement in our communities is basically Criminal Code enforcement. Many of our first nations have enacted band bylaws. However, those bylaws are not prosecuted anymore. In the early 2000s, the Ministry of the Attorney General stopped prosecuting the band bylaws. The communities have been pressing MAG to get their bylaws heard. However, there has been a lot of reluctance from MAG to do this.
In some of our mostly road access communities, a few communities have adopted provisions from various provincial acts, such as the Highway Traffic Act and the Liquor Licence Act. It allows us to perform enforcement, and prosecution of that rests with the Ontario provincial offences court systems. Many of our communities, especially in the north, don't have access to the provincial offences systems.
As I mentioned earlier, NAPS falls under the first nations policing program, FNPP, which is an outdated program. The terms and conditions that govern the first nations program are very restrictive in what are eligible expenses. For example, right now, crime units, emergency response and victim services are deemed ineligible. Under the current Police Services Act and the forthcoming community policing and safety act, law enforcement, emergency response and victim services are all core functions for a police service.
Yet, under the first nations policing program, funding for these aspects of core police functions are not allowed. For example, within our police service, we have a program called the survivor assistance support program. The SASP, which is what we call it, is designed to support the immediate needs of victims of intimate partner abuse and sexual abuse.
When you look at the recommendations from recent inquiries such as the MMIWG, which the federal government has recognized, why is it that indigenous police services such as NAPS have to apply for funding for core policing functions? This is why the FNPP needs to be updated.
Without the proper funding to meet core functions in policing, and with no avenue of prosecution for first nation community-enacted laws, we had to be creative, especially when it comes to COVID enforcement. COVID enforcement in Ontario, as everyone is aware, used the existing provincial offences systems. As I stated, in many remote communities that we police, there is no system for enforcement. Like I said, we had to be creative.
This is where we asked our legal counsel, Falconers LLP, to come up with what we feel is something that our communities can use for code enforcement.
I am going to have our legal counsel explain exactly what we did.
Julian, I'll turn it over to you.