Evidence of meeting #14 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
A video is available from Parliament.
Project Lead, Gi-Ganawenima'Anaanig #231 Implementation Committee (Manitoba)
In Manitoba, our organization, Gi-Ganawenima'Anaanig, has developed a database called reddressstoriesmb.ca where we have been able to rely on different databases, media reports and family notifications about our missing and murdered loved ones.
From 2010 to 2020, in 10 years, we had 105 women, girls and gender-diverse people go missing in Manitoba, but from 2020 to August of this year, 105 people have been murdered in our little province.
November 26th, 2025 / 5:30 p.m.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Thank you.
Chief Bell, again, thank you for your service.
You've given some testimony that has already answered some of my questions.
Can you tell me the population of your community?
Garden River First Nation
My community has a population close to 4,000, but actually only about 1,200 are living on the nation.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
What kind of territory is it? How big of an area would you say it is?
Garden River First Nation
We're on the U.S. border, between the Great Lakes. We have an area just east of the city of Sault Ste. Marie. If you were looking at its size, the area would be 10-by-10-by-10.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
You said that you've had improvements. I'm wondering how many officers you actually have now in your community.
Garden River First Nation
When I started in 1990, we had three. In 1995, we ended up with two more. From 1995 to 2025, we still have the same number, five.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I would imagine your population has increased over that time.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
If you had a magic wand.... I'm assuming you've actually had conversations with people in neighbouring areas. Do you have an idea of an ideal number of officers per area?
In my riding of Yellowhead, all of the areas are policed by the RCMP. There are often 400 to 800 square kilometres per officer where they have to work, which is way too much for an individual officer. I'm wondering if you have worked out a formula for the optimum number of police officers you should really have.
Garden River First Nation
I would say it would have to be double, right off the top. If you have officers working night shifts, then who's going to work days? If you have officers on training or on sick leave, who's going to work their shifts? We must have that number to support and augment 365 days of policing.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Thank you.
I don't have too much time, but I'll go to Ms. DeLaronde.
I'm from Alberta, and my riding doesn't have the issues that some others have in remote areas, even though it's a huge riding. I have heard of some ridings in Saskatchewan, and possibly in Manitoba, where rural areas are getting fly-in officers.
Do you know if they have looked at that to get some coverage and to get some of their policing dealt with in that way?
Project Lead, Gi-Ganawenima'Anaanig #231 Implementation Committee (Manitoba)
In Manitoba, the RCMP still has fly-in communities. Many of our communities are fly-in.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I meant the actual coverage for the officers, where they have officers who might live in Winnipeg, for example, but then they fly to areas where they might be policing for a week or two.
Project Lead, Gi-Ganawenima'Anaanig #231 Implementation Committee (Manitoba)
Yes, that's one of the strategies in place in Manitoba.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Do you know the percentage? Do you know what kind of coverage? Is that a minority, or is it becoming more of an issue that they're dealing with?
A lot of those guys are not necessarily connected to the communities. You discussed having that community-based person who understands everything there.
Project Lead, Gi-Ganawenima'Anaanig #231 Implementation Committee (Manitoba)
Limited posting was an issue raised in the national inquiry. Having non-community members or not having indigenous officers policing those communities continues to create barriers. If you were to have indigenous officers or indigenous persons policing those communities, there would be, I think, less animosity.
Conservative
William Stevenson Conservative Yellowhead, AB
They're a bit more connected to the community so there are better effects.
Project Lead, Gi-Ganawenima'Anaanig #231 Implementation Committee (Manitoba)
Yes.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Terry Sheehan
Thank you very much.
Before we conclude, I'm going to exercise the chair's prerogative to ask a question in the last Liberal spot.
My question is around human trafficking. I'm going to pose the question to Chief Bell, because obviously I'm very familiar with the area.
Where Garden River is situated it's at one of the narrowest spots on the river. You already mentioned that you are a border nation to the United States. There is some money in the budget, and they're talking about doing more enforcement along the border. How important is that as it relates to Garden River nation and its safety?
I've been down the river. I've been with the APS. I've been with the CBSA. They always talk about that spot in Garden River that is very narrow. They point to the bridge that connects to Sault Ste. Marie, and they'll say that only the dumb criminals take that one.
There's a lot of pressure on your community not only being on the highway, but also being so close to the United States.
Please provide some comments on that, Chief Bell.
Garden River First Nation
I'll put it into some context. I was a member of the Anishinabek Police Service. From 2001 to 2004, I had the fortunate ability to join what was called the international integrated border enforcement team. It was an initiative, I believe, by the RCMP. That consisted of several police services from both the U.S. and Canada. We did a lot of border protection, because Canada is so vulnerable. They realized very quickly that lots of the first nations in Canada are bordering the U.S., and those are the vulnerable locations.
I had four years of experience working with the RCMP on this integrated border enforcement team. Most if not all of the interdictions we had were with vulnerable persons and people who were attempting to enter into the U.S. or vice versa. All that took place at that little location that you alluded to, where if you throw a baseball and you're pitching it into the U.S.
There were people using every means of effort to get over there illegally, whether it be by boat or pontoon, a flotation device or swimming. That is the prime location where all of the trafficking of persons back and forth took place. You leave that alone, put it aside and think about who's going to police that when this integrated border enforcement team disintegrates, which it did in 2004.
That spot is still there, and it is still vulnerable and not being adequately policed.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Terry Sheehan
You would recommend something similar to what was done in the past, with some improvements, then. This is just for the analysts to take note.
