Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 24th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 13 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. We recognize that we meet on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, the committee is continuing its study of indigenous policing and public safety.

I want to remind everybody of the little tips on how to help our interpreters out. Make sure that your mics are off when you're not speaking. If you're not speaking and you take your earpiece out, put it on the little placard. Leaving it in your ear is fine as well.

We have people joining online. Ginette is there. Somebody else who will be joining us online is Chief Michael Yellowback from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

I believe everyone has been tested, and they are okay for the interpreters.

Those folks who are online, if you wish to speak, use the “raise hand” function. The clerk and I will look for that, and we will recognize you.

I've introduced Chief Michael Yellowback, but we also have Lloyd Yew, chief executive officer, Turtle Island Private Investigators Inc.; and Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, National Family and Survivors Circle Inc.

You will each have five minutes, and then we'll go into our rounds of questions. As you get close to your five minutes, I will signal to you to wrap it up.

Let us begin with Lloyd, please.

[Lloyd Yew, Chief Executive Officer, Turtle Island Private Investigators Inc., As an Individual]

Thank you for inviting me, Mr. Chair.

Kinanâskomitin.

Merci beaucoup.

My name is Lloyd Yew. I'm an ex-member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I'm presently CEO of TIPI, Turtle Island Private Investigators.

TIPI was formed in February 2022 and since then has been working in first nations and Métis communities in northern Saskatchewan. As of this date, TIPI has worked in nine different communities. TIPI is made up of indigenous ex-RCMP members and ex-military. Each RCMP member brings different attributes to the team. Some were in the RCMP drug section, the special “O” section, the traffic services section, or in NCO i/c positions.

The TIPI team has two elders—one male, who is Cree, and one female, who is Dene. We have legal counsel, a K-9 unit, ex-pro hockey players and ex-university volleyball players.

TIPI utilizes technology to conduct its work, including top-end drones equipped with infrared, speakers and spotlights; vehicle surveillance cameras and body cameras; handheld infrared, high-end binoculars and cameras; and handheld and truck radios that work globally. TIPI was designed to help indigenous communities deal with social issues and challenges.

In northern Saskatchewan, communities and their leaders are overwhelmed with illegal drugs, gangs, prostitution, violence and suicides. The regular good people, especially elders and single parents, are scared and feel threatened. In one community, there were two separate occasions when elders were attacked in their own homes by people under the influence of drugs and alcohol. One of the elders ended up in the hospital with a broken arm.

TIPI responds to a variety of complaints, including attempted suicides. Just last week we dealt with a young lady who was trying to commit suicide. TIPI was called to the complaint as the RCMP was not available. When TIPI arrived at the scene and eventually broke into the residence, the young lady was found in the basement inside a furnace room. She had blocked the entrance door to it with a mattress. She had hanged herself. TIPI officers immediately grabbed the young lady, lifted her up, held her up while untying her, and then revived her. There are other examples where TIPI has saved lives.

TIPI creates partnerships within communities, with elders, leaders, rec directors, school health officials and the RCMP. The daily routines of TIPI involve patrolling streets 24 hours a day with fully marked security vehicles and drones. TIPI is regularly in contact with the RCMP to help locate people on warrants, respond to complaints with them and, at times, respond to their dispatch calls. TIPI assists them with searches, clearing buildings, guarding scenes and much more.

TIPI also monitors illegal activities, drug dealers and gang members, documenting and forwarding information to the RCMP. We respond to emergencies, and we also respond to missing people. We attend all community gatherings. We coach hockey, host volleyball clinics, mentor the youth, assist community nurses and ambulances, teach self-defence to frontline workers and assist band leadership with serving legal documents and whatever else they need. TIPI creates files and keeps stats for all the clients.

TIPI arrived in one northern community and responded to approximately 100 complaints per month for the first few months. Last month, the complaints went down by nearly 50%. One can see that TIPI's presence in the community is working. As part of this, we are working with the Métis Nation–Saskatchewan, the RCMP, the marshals and other groups to develop a province-wide community safety officer program to address what MN–S earlier this year called a state of emergency due to the crisis of drugs, violence and alcohol.

In closing, a comment we received as feedback from the RCMP who are stationed in the communities we work in was, “It's nice to know we can count on you guys having our backs.”

Thank you Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Thank you Lloyd.

Next we are going to Chief Yellowback, who is joining us online.

Please begin, Chief.

[Chief Michael Yellowback, Chief, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs]

[Witness spoke in Cree]

[English]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.

My name is Chief Chief Michael Yellowback, appearing today on behalf of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, which represents 63 first nations across treaties 1 through 6 and 10 in Manitoba. I am from the Manto Sipi Cree Nation in Treaty 5 territory.

I speak today not only as a chief but as a witness to the lived reality of our first nations citizens and to the systemic and structural failures and wide gaps in the current public safety and policing systems imposed upon us.

The message from our leadership is clear. Manitoba first nations face a crisis in public safety and well-being, and Canada's programs in supporting policing services and public safety in first nations are not addressing this crisis. The Manto Sipi Cree Nation and the first nations in northern Manitoba have been working for 24 years to establish our own regional self-administered first nations police service.

Northern Manitoba first nations have entered into two tripartite agreements between Canada, Manitoba and first nations to establish our regional police service. The first was on June 6, 2001. Since 2001, Canada has not made a budget commitment to provide 52% of funding to establish a new regional first nations police service in Manitoba under the first nations and Inuit policing program. We are concerned and deeply disappointed that there is no commitment in budget 2025 to invest in first nations policing or to establish a new first nations self-administered policing service in Manitoba or anywhere in Canada.

In Manitoba, there are no standards for delivery of policing and public safety services in first nations. My community of 1,000 people is not connected to the all-weather road system, and we rely on scheduled air services and the increasingly brief, seasonal winter roads. We do not have a full-time RCMP detachment, and we do not see a boots-on-the-ground RCMP officer for three weeks out of every month. There is no identifiable standard that accepts the complete absence of police in a community for three weeks out of every month.

Across Manitoba, first nations are declaring states of emergency because of violence, addiction, inadequate housing conditions, youth vulnerability, wildfires, evacuations and long periods without any policing presence. Most of our first nations are like Manto Sipi and do not have a full-time RCMP detachment, and many have no detachment building or housing for police officers.

The Auditor General confirmed that the policing program is not based on risk of population, that allocated funds have gone unspent and that officer vacancies remain unresolved. We are asking this committee to recommend that the Government of Canada move forward with legislation to establish first nations policing as an essential service. We are asking the committee to recommend that Canada establish identifiable standards for delivery of policing and public safety services in first nations as part of establishing a first nations policing service as an essential service.

We are asking this committee to call on Canada to make a firm commitment to a path forward that includes concrete actions to support first nations led measures to protect our citizens. We saw this during the 2025 wildfire evacuations, and we also saw it during COVID-19, when first nations-led our own emergency responses. We delivered first nations designed and controlled results that exceed those of federal and provincial systems.

Manitoba first nations are also advancing to be consistent with AMC chiefs-in-assembly mandates. The AMC and AMC member first nations are advancing as a practical and rights-based approach to respond to leadership concerns and issues. This really is a first nations public safety jurisdiction approach, centred on the following points:

One, first nations laws and justice principles must guide safety planning and must be supported with proper resources.

Two, Canada should work with AMC member first nations to co-develop Manitoba first nations-specific legislation consistent with UNDRIP that recognizes and implements first nations authority over public safety.

Three, the first nations, Canada and Manitoba tripartite table is needed to coordinate implementation, redesign and align the FNIPP with first nations policing priorities and principles for public safety.

Four, funding must be stable and multi-year based on the real needs of our first nations.

Five, Canada must invest in first nations institutions that carry safety into practice, including justice systems, healing programs, emergency management and local safety structures.

AMC is also asking this committee to recommend three additional key concrete actions to be taken by the Government of Canada:

One, immediately fix the gaps in the FNIPP. Address vacant positions, unspent funds and unreliable police presence. There is an urgent need for Canada to invest in the creation of new first nations self-administered policing services, an essential element of the foundation of long-term public safety and well-being in first nations.

Two, support and significantly expand first nations-led safety systems that are already working in Manitoba, including first nations safety officers, restored and enhanced enforcement of first nations laws and bylaws, community protection teams, land-based wellness supports and emergency response systems similar to what what we used during COVID-19.

Three, concurrently, develop and co-draft with Manitoba first nations a clear path to first nations safety jurisdiction that is aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Manitoba aboriginal justice inquiry and the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This path must support first nations laws and lawmaking, enforcement mechanisms, and the safety systems our nations define, all based on principles of restorative justice.

First nations in Manitoba are already doing this work, strengthening our laws, enforcing our bylaws, building our own safety systems and protecting our first nations with the tools available to us, consistent with our first nations principles. We have the vision and mandate and the inherent authority to achieve public safety and well-being of our nations. What is needed now is for Canada to honour its obligations and support an UNDRIP-aligned transition to first nations safety jurisdiction.

We are asking this committee to work to recommend exactly this.

Ekosi, kinanaskomitinowow.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Thank you very much, Chief.

Hilda, you have the floor for five minutes, please.

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, Chair, National Family and Survivors Circle Inc.]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Hilda Anderson. I serve as the president of the National Family and Survivors Circle Inc. We are an indigenous-led and distinctions-based non-profit organization composed of family members of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, survivors of gender and race-based violence and our two-spirit and gender-diverse relatives. For families, survivors and indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people, public safety is not a policy file or an abstract concept. It is about life and death. It is about whether someone's daughter, mother, sister, auntie or partner comes home safely at the end of the day. It is about whether families receive the respect and action they deserve when a loved one goes missing or is harmed.

Public safety for indigenous people is a human right that governments are obligated to fulfill. This obligation is reinforced by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UNDRIP, which affirms the inherent rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination and to live free from violence. However, despite these internationally recognized rights, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was clear that the ongoing cycle of violence that we see is rooted in colonialism, systemic racism and government inaction. It is not accidental, and it is not new.

I want to focus my remarks around what families, survivors and indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people need to see in order to transform public safety. These needs have been consistent for decades and are outlined clearly in the national inquiry's calls for justice. Today I will share eight key recommendations.

First, safety must be treated as a birthright. Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people are entitled to safety and well-being from the moment they are born. Governments must recognize this as a fundamental human right, and their actions and investments must reflect the truth.

Second, indigenous policing must be recognized in law as an essential service. Public safety in indigenous communities cannot depend on short-term funding cycles or shifting government priorities. It must be fully funded, legislated and designed to meet the real needs of communities.

Third, true transformation requires indigenous-led public safety systems. We cannot fix deeply entrenched problems by trying to adjust systems that were built without us and often against us. The path forward is indigenous-designed and distinctions-based public safety models that reflect community realities, cultures and rights.

Fourth, governments must implement the policing calls for justice without delay. Calls for justice 9.1 to 9.11 provide a clear, detailed road map for transforming policing. Families, survivors and indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people should not be waiting for action on commitments that we have known for years. Implementation must be immediate, transparent and accountable.

Fifth, public safety must be co-developed with indigenous governments. Indigenous nations know the solutions that work in their communities. Co-development must be genuine, grounded in the principles of indigenous self-determination and understood as a rights-based obligation.

Sixth, every decision must be guided by a human rights lens. Public safety cannot be treated as a program to be expanded or reduced based on budgets. These are human rights obligations. Governments have a responsibility to uphold them in policies, legislation and funding decisions.

Seventh, governments must fund the full scope of community-defined safety. Safety is more than policing. Families and survivors need investments in prevention, land-based and cultural programs, healing supports, victim services, crisis response and trauma-informed care. These supports must be long term and stable.

Eighth, families, survivors and indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people must be partners at every stage. Their knowledge, experience and leadership are essential to meaningful change. They are rights holders. We are not stakeholders. We must help design, implement and oversee public safety and systems.

Members of the committee, families, survivors and indigenous women and girls have been clear for decades. They have waited long enough for governments to act on what they already know. Public safety for indigenous people must be grounded in rights, co-developed with indigenous nations, and informed by those who have the lived consequences of systemic failure. Ending this crisis requires bold, urgent and coordinated action. It requires listening to families, survivors and gender-diverse people and honouring their leadership. It requires transforming public safety so that every indigenous woman, girl and 2SLGBTQIA+ person can live with dignity and without fear.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to our first round of six minutes with Jamie, please.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes, ON]

Thank you very much to our witnesses.

I'll start with Mr. Yew.

Thank you for your service as an RCMP officer, and thank you for your contributions.

You spoke about how there seems to be an increase in gang activity and in drug activity in some of the communities you are servicing. Do you have a few ideas as to why this is occurring with such frequency and violence now?

[Lloyd Yew]

Maybe I can go back to when I was a police officer in these communities. We didn't see as much violence, and we didn't see as many drugs. The leading cause is the drugs coming into the community now, with crystal meth being so cheap. Of course, residential schools impacted their lifestyles, as well. For some of these kids, they never really had the parenting, the structure of a family. It's not there. The number of kids we deal with now...I don't know how to explain it. It's just that they don't even know right from wrong. That's what I'm trying to say. It's very sad.

With all these big city problems, back in the day, with the drugs and the violence happening in cities, those all came to the small towns, to these communities. The leaders and the teachers are overwhelmed with the problems now, as are the police services. There's the shortage of police services in northern Saskatchewan. I can only speak for northern Saskatchewan, where there are supposed to be five members, but it's down to one.

A neighbouring community is supposed to have, I believe, 19 police officers, but they're down to five. They're so busy responding to stuff. Again, it's because of the families, because of the residential schools. That's one of the main reasons.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes, ON]

Do you find that the availability of assistance and help for those struggling with addictions is part of the issue as well?

[Lloyd Yew]

I'm sorry, but my hearing is a bit off.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes, ON]

Mine is too. It's all good.

Do you find that the access to help for addictions is a barrier as well?

[Lloyd Yew]

Absolutely. We don't have any of that. We have a bit, where people can go to the clinic, but it's very limited. It's a must that northern Saskatchewan get that help.

One of our elders works as a mental health worker. He gets frustrated. I can understand it and see it. At the moment you need help, you don't get it. You have to wait in line for a long time. That's one of the big issues. People say, “Well, forget it,” and they keep doing it.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes, ON]

Ms. Anderson-Pyrz, you mentioned in your your remarks about the government not living up to its obligations for public safety, for one thing. You mentioned a bunch of recommendations.

Based on what you just heard from Mr. Yew and from our friend from Manitoba, are you happy with the level of crime that's going on in some of these communities? Do you feel that the government's not living up to that obligation at all, or is it getting further from the benchmark?

[Hilda Anderson-Pyrz]

We can look at the history of the impacts of the Indian residential schools, and we can look at the intergenerational impacts and the decades of poverty that indigenous people have been living in. I see that every level of government that we've experienced in this country has never really addressed the root causes of violence and addictions that we face as indigenous people and in our communities.

It's more so when you're looking at the impacts on indigenous women and girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people. If you look at it from a gender lens, we're at further risk from inaction by governments to address the root causes of the systemic failures we continue to experience in 2025.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes, ON]

I have time for only one question or maybe a couple, I think.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

You have one minute.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes, ON]

One minute. Okay.

Hopefully, in a second round I'll come back to that, because I want to ask you about those root causes. I want to try to drill down into some of that.

I'll go quickly to Chief Yellowback.

In your testimony, you outlined a number of recommendations, but you also highlighted the recent agreement you signed. I think that's a positive step forward.

You mentioned that there are some issues with the funding formula. What we've been hearing in previous witness testimony is that it's year by year. It's often not lining up with fiscals, and there is a whole bunch of other issues around that. You mentioned it too. The year-by-year funding model isn't giving much certainty.

Do you want to expand on that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

You have 20 seconds, Chief.

[Chief Michael Yellowback]

Well, in our community with our first nation safety officer officer program, we get about $42,000 in funding, yet we expend close to $400,000 annually.

That's one of the major challenges we face in our community: to try to ensure public safety in the absence of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in our community, so doing our—

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

Thanks, Chief.

[Chief Michael Yellowback]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Sheehan]

I'm sure you'll be able to get the rest of that out in the next round of questioning going forward.

Brendan, you have six minutes, please.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you to the three of you for being here and for your testimony.

Mr. Yew, I'd like to start with you.

Towards the end of your written testimony, there's a really interesting quote. You said that the quote from your RCMP colleagues was that “it's like having extra...officers...here”. Your presence is obviously appreciated, but I imagine that your presence adds a different dimension than what the RCMP core service offers. Could you touch on that?

[Lloyd Yew]

When we go to a community, we go to the heart of the community and we offer our services to everybody, including the police and the RCMP. In most places, we're there because there's a lack of police, and they need help. When we attend, we form a kind of unwritten partnership, where we're there to help: What do they need? Who do they need?

There are some times, too, where special forces are needed to come to the community. At times, because we're there, they utilize our equipment, especially drones. I'll give you an example. In one community, there was a person inside a house, possibly with a gun. The police opened the door for us and we flew our drone in and cleared it, instead of having them wait for half a day for an emergency response team to come. These are the things we do with the RCMP.