Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Meegwetch.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. What are the tools? The first thing it takes is will. It all starts there. It takes political will from governments, which have to stop treating us the way they have for decades, even centuries. That has to change immediately. We always say, Who k

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With regard to the comments that were made earlier about getting back to normal, for us, back to normal is really not an option. We talk about welfare cheques because that is what normal was for Winneway: depending on the welfare system. We need to have access to our own lands a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I mentioned that we are lacking infrastructure in our community. We don't have our own arena. We have a ball field. We made it on our own without getting any financial support. I think there's a need for that to start providing adequate infrastructure for our young people. What

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. Under the plan, I set up an important committee. The council has 14 members on the pandemic committee. The committee is made up of health care, education and public works stakeholders, as well as members of the council and the community's general adm

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, thanks for the question. My community is in the province of Quebec, and Quebec reopened their schools about three weeks ago or so. We found it pretty premature to do that, so we decided not to reopen our school. Although it's just one school, it houses the primary and secon

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We had a rather rough start with the federal government, and that was mainly at the bureaucracy level. What was so frustrating for us was that we felt it was pretty much a delaying tactic. All we were asking for was to have portable trailers come into the community so that, in t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Lemire. We asked the federal government to help us set up infrastructure. We went into lockdown and we closed off access to the community—there's only one road into Winneway. We told people that they couldn't leave the community except for medic

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Clearly, it's like trying to govern and manage the community and land with one hand tied behind your back. We don't have legal status, but we aren't very open to being considered a reserve under the Indian Act. We'd prefer having status similar to that granted to the Kanesatake

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The population of our youth is very significant. Just in my community, those under the age of 25 represent 65% of the population. There's not very much opportunity, even in terms of sports. We don't have an arena. We're pretty far from that. We are very lacking in community infra

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Hello. First, I would like to acknowledge the speakers before me: the regional chief from Alberta, Chief Poitras; Mr. Tom Jackson; and Chief Fiddler. I want to acknowledge them, and I really share their intervention. I will give you a little bit more of a scope from a community

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Are you going to allow me another 30 seconds for that, Mr. Chairman?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Before answering the question on the effects of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic on my community in particular, I find it important to provide you with a brief history and the issues behind the land status of my community of Winneway. It would serve to enlighten