Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. It is an honour to join you today.
I am Helen Paavola. I'm chief of the Namaygoosisagagun First Nation. We are a near band located in the Robinson-Superior Treaty territory. We are currently going through the process for recognition through the Federal Court. We submitted an application to the Federal Court in December 2018. We did that because the NBBA policy does not take into consideration near bands, the situation we find ourselves in.
We do have land and we are recognized first nation members. We are all status. We have a community that is situated.... What I find with this policy is that it does not take into any consideration that we are already a situated first nation.
There's so much more I could say, but I just wanted to bring to your attention that the policy needs to be looked at and that it really needs to consider the near bands located in Ontario itself and in the other provinces.
Thank you.