Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good afternoon to the members of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you today to talk about how we of the Nipissing First Nation use our land and how we are striving to obtain economic sustainability.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. As I said, I'm very flexible. I'm patient. As I was saying, we have a recreational vehicle dealer, we have a tile and brick company. We also have the Miller Group of Companies in our industrial park. This company supplies liquid asphalt and they do road constructio

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll try to explain that. It's not a perception; it's an actual fact. Each year, our lands department is informed that they have less money to do what needs to be done. Presently, we have six employees in our lands department. They need to be out there surveying and recording al

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a good question; I'm glad you raised it. The additions to reserves policy are arduous. Back in 1995, we were promised 33,000 acres, and this was unsold, surrendered land. Back in 1904 and 1907, the government, or Indian Affairs at the time, had.... The councils differ on w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Definitely.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It would help to retrieve some of that. Ontario Hydro operates transmission lines through our territories, and part of it is on this unsold, surrendered land. Unfortunately, the government didn't insist on a lease. So we're now in negotiations with Hydro One and Ontario Power Gen

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I am.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I will attempt to answer your questions, sir. We’ve had control of our land since the sixties. That's when we took over the leasing of land. Indian Affairs had set up these lease agreements and we were not getting the return that we felt was necessary, that was fair market value

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I do. On those lands that we're waiting to get back...we do have some of our people leasing land from us. In those instances, we don't charge them a lease; we give them a land permit. In a way of helping our local economy develop, we forego any leasing charges. Now, for the

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, definitely. We're always open for business, for new businesses.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly under land management we're able to expedite.... When we grant for residential purposes, we can do that within a day or two, whereas before, with Indian Affairs, it would take us a year or two to finally get that approval. We're able to now.... What am I trying to say?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What needs to be taken into account is the amount of fuel we expend just getting to and from our communities, depreciation on our equipment, opportunities to replace that equipment, and just adding in a distance factor, because our communities are distant. That's why I referred t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. Definitely, there has to be more money. We're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul within our administration. We know we need those extra positions.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The inner workings? I'm sorry...?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a toughie.