Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The challenge is that the social problems still exist. Overcrowding in homes creates a multitude of problems. The social problems are still there and will still continue. The population growth in our communities is growing faster than the Canadian average, so that problem is not

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that question. It's a really good question. I think it fits, because all the amendments that are part of Bill C-45 have a direct impact on first nations communities, especially services to communities. We would hope that infrastructure, especially with the First N

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that question, Mr. Vidal. We really believe that the monetization of government transfers, be it a new source of funding or an existing source of funding, will really be a big game-changer when it comes to closing this infrastructure gap. I actually became aware of

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. My name is Ernie Daniels and I am the president and CEO of the First Nations Finance Authority. I am a member of the Salt River First Nation in the Northwest Territories. I'd like to thank Leane Walsh and her team at CIRNAC, the First Nations Tax Commission a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's a very good question. Simply put, the barrier we hear all the time is that there's a lack of government transfer for that. There is no funding available. There's no revenue available. But we know that there is, because there's $2 billion in there. You're building it slowly.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's been no push-back from our membership. They are directing us to do this and look at how we can build more infrastructure in our communities. How do we propose to make $25 billion? I mentioned that it was a billion. Through the power of leveraging, we have access to the c

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Harold kind of touched on it. I was going to talk about the Clearwater deal. That was clearly innovative in terms of how that deal went through. It was a public company that ended up being a private company. It took some innovation and thi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. McLeod. It's nice to see you again. Yes, it doesn't really matter where the money's coming from. I think what's really important is that it's a stream of money, because I don't know if paying a lump sum is the issue. There's probably not enough money to do it all

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can add to that. The real barrier is having an adequate revenue stream to support the debt. The only way we're going to grow and economic development is going to flourish is by having access to affordable financing. Under this act, we have been able to do that. Once monetiza

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Is that for me?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the really good question. Monetization is a really simple concept. As individuals we use it almost every day. When we're going to buy a house we don't usually have the money on hand to buy it. What we do is take out a mortgage that is based on our ability to servic

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. My name is Ernie Daniels, and I'm president and CEO of the First Nations Finance Authority. With me is Steve Berna, our chief operating officer. First, I would like to thank the committee for undertaking this study as your first priority since the election. As you kn

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's a very good question. I'll start, and then I'll turn it over quickly to Mr. Berna. Again, we use existing revenue streams. Every time we get an increase in a rating as our borrowers increase, the amount we borrow increases also, and from there, with a good track record,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not sure if that question was for me, but to me that would be a shovel-ready project. I know that where I was born and raised in the Northwest Territories, they definitely need high-speed Internet up there. I was on a Zoom call like this, and we had to use Zoom for the video

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm going to get Mr. Berna to answer that.