Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Our communities are policed by our own police service, the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service. There are protocols with our police service in terms of what their role is or should be in the event of an evacuation, so those are clear with our leadership, with our police service, and ot

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There should at least be a base that we all agree on in terms of what those standards should look like or what they can look like. Right now, at least in our territory, there's an utter lack of any type of standard. For example, Mike talked about our schools, and right now they

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We don't know that, because there are no standards. I spoke with the minister this morning on NAPS, our police service. Again, there are no standards in our detachment. Everything is program based, and that's what we need to change.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, we support it. It's in our submission. What we want to insist on, though, is that we be involved in defining the function of that office. We need to be involved in the creation of that office.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Obviously the fire marshal's office would be a part of that strategy. If you read our document that we submitted to the committee earlier today, it spells out some of the things we want to do immediately. At the same time, there are some long-term issues that we need to address t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Meegwetch. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you to talk about these very important issues. I want to start off by acknowledging that we are on unceded territory of the Algonquin people. I thank the leadership and the members of that nati

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I just want to thank the committee for allowing us to be here today to present to you our issues or solutions. I also want to acknowledge my friend Charlie for all the work he has done, for calling on Parliament to have a debate. That was historic. I was watching it on TV, and I

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The issue on the ground in many of our communities is energy, and the fact that many of our communities still rely on diesel generators. One quick example is Pikangikum. You heard about Pikangikum and what happened there two weeks ago. Their power right now is at full capacity.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I strongly support and agree with what you're saying, Charlie. I think all of us realize in this room that we have a window of opportunity to finally address the long-standing issues: the social determinants of health, and the underlying issues that have been plaguing our commun

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of my colleagues, one of the chiefs I work with always uses this line when we meet with government officials, “Nothing about us without us.” When it comes to talking about issues that impact our communities, whether it's climate change, whether it's education, health care, we

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that's one reason we're here today, to appeal to you, the committee, to work with us in implementing these reports, like the one I referenced. This came out last year, April 25—it's almost a year. There's so very little follow-up to that. I think we need to agree on certa

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I just want to add to that. It is about relationships. It is about investing in our youth. It is about building capacity in our communities for them to be able to meaningfully engage in the economy. I talked about Neskantaga. They are negotiating on the Ring of Fire development.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  On February 25, we issued a declaration, an emergency on health and public health in our territory, and the reason we did that was because of all the stories that you've heard here today. Then three weeks after, we made that declaration and we had that meeting with Minister Philp