Finance committee  Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to appear on behalf of the Assembly of First Nations, Alberta Region, which is a regional advocacy body for 44 first nations in Alberta. I first want to welcome you all to Alberta, the traditional territory of Treaty No. 6. It is our

Finance committee  First nations youth are Canada's youngest and fastest-growing demographic, and we need to invest in this generation. We need to invest in housing, infrastructure and education to close the socio-economic gap and begin to realize first nations' potential. Investment in our aborigi

Finance committee  Absolutely. I believe the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its 94 recommendations are very important in that. Although a number of areas you mentioned are funded, there needs to be more. Often the funding that goes through it takes a long time to get to the first nations

Finance committee  Yes the flow-through, the funding, is oftentimes an issue, because, like I said, it takes a while. For example, in Alberta, on the Trans Mountain pipeline, there were a number of first nations that were interested in becoming owners of the pipeline, but the funding was an issue,

Finance committee  There are a lot of programs out there. ASETS is one program. The procurement strategy needs to be improved. It needs to have first nations at the table to develop those policies around procurement. There are a lot of instances, as I said in my presentation.... Ontario is working

Finance committee  Absolutely. In Alberta, there is a wide range of first nations. There are the haves and the have-nots. As you said, a lot of them have success in their businesses. But those have-nots really don't have any type of resource opportunities within their region. I think the governm

Finance committee  Absolutely. I'd love to do that. A lot of first nations right now are building their economies with their nations, working toward self-determination, building their laws and their constitutions, protocols and all of that. There are good things happening. I believe that with gove

Finance committee  As I said previously, when the funding comes to the regional level, it becomes harder to access. I believe the biggest obstacle is the bureaucracy—when there's funding available, you have to do the proposal, you submit the proposal and then there are more things you need to submi

Finance committee  Yes, it is, because with the businesses you don't go through that big bureaucracy. They're developing one-on-one relations. They build relations and have an understanding of what the first nation wants and the expectations of the company. It's easier to work through that. With th

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  We deal with both levels. When Ottawa has a pot of money it usually comes to the region, but it has a lot of expectations attached to it. When it comes to the region, even though they try to work with us to relieve some of those bureaucratic requirements, it still creates a lot o

Finance committee  I think it would be better if the funding were to go directly to the nations or to the regions where there are institutions that actually provide resources, like Aboriginal Business Canada. A lot of first nations do access those institutions for funding. Of course, the funding th

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning. [Witness spoke in Cree] I thank you for the opportunity to address you from the heart of Treaty 6 territory. I represent a region fully encompassed by treaty numbers 6, 7 and 8. These treaties are more than just agreements between our nati

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First nations have always participated in the economy. As a matter of fact, I believe we have over 40,000 businesses across Canada. In moving forward, we should be involved because we have a lot to contribute to society. The business leaders we have are fairly astute and can prov

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The youth are very important to our society because they're going to be our next leaders. It's really important that we put measures in place that support them in sports, arts or whichever area they want to go into, even if it's leadership. I believe that the voices of youth are