Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Williams Lake Band has not had any communication with the Williams Lake Fire Department. However, we have been dealing with the 150 Mile House volunteer fire department and the Cariboo Regional District to expand our firefighting capacity.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For us, yes. I just want to go back to the comment about the city. We've had experiences of racism because of the mayor in the past. That's an issue that has evolved over time, because we have let him know that we won't put up with it any longer. Business is getting better, but we've always had a better relationship with the CRD.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I agree with Kukpi7 Day's comments. I personally made a presentation to the B.C. cabinet and all the chiefs regarding the fire situation this summer. EMBC has been quite active. I just met with them again a couple of weeks ago. It has been a difficult process, but it's slowly evolving.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't know. You mentioned earlier about the Prime Minister coming to the area. The Williams Lake Band and the surrounding areas have always been left out. I addressed that specifically to Minister Wilson-Raybould, that I was annoyed that the Prime Minister landed in our territory and took a flight directly to the west to see the other nations, but didn't give us the time of day.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right and I appreciate your efforts in that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For us, initially, it took the meeting that occurred at the Cariboo fire centre, with the people that I named earlier, and making demands and asserting ourselves. Fortunately for us, one of our council members, Willie Sellars, was a former firefighter with the Cariboo fire centre, so they recognized him and finally set up a “pac team” within the Williams Lake Band and then he eventually went to work for the Cariboo fire centre.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can't speak for all other communities, but I know for us, our community would have probably been wiped out entirely had it not been for the firefighters who went back in during the night, as well as the people who worked on the highway. It was their equipment that saved our businesses and the community members saved the houses.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. They were very extreme flames.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Williams Lake Band has a fire truck, fire hall, and we're integrated with the 150 Mile House Fire Department, so some of our community members have been trained to work with the fire department. We make presentations at our community meetings, but as I said earlier, there's a lot more work to be done.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That was where I found out about information with funding being allocated to the Tsilhqot'in people. Chief Joe Alphonse approached me and mentioned that he had received a large sum of money, so I pursued it immediately and relayed that message to other chiefs in our area.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When Prime Minister Trudeau came to Williams Lake, none of our chiefs from the northern Secwepemc were given any time at all. He got off the plane, shook our hands, made a couple of comments, and that was the extent of his visit with us.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Eventually, after we asserted ourselves, we had planning meetings throughout, but for the first few days we did not have anybody other than Jeff Eustache, who came on from first nations. We moved our office to Williams Lake because we have a building in Williams Lake. That's where we did our work, but we ourselves ended up setting up a daily phone call for our community members and staff, along with EOC.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We never received any funding and we never got any planning dollars or anything to develop emergency evacuations for crises such as this. The funding we got from the federal government I requested directly from Catherine Lappe. That's how we got that, but it was much later in the event.