Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question because I do have some suggestions that a number of people have come up with in my community. Obviously, one of the things, with regards to the Indian Act, is that a lot of people have said to scrap that, which possibly could be a better solution and

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In my community we felt left out. We felt we didn't have a voice. There was not a lot of consultation in my community. Most certainly there are a number of us who would have made recommendations. Many of us feel our voices are not heard. I don't mean to say that disrespectfully,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's very difficult. There are a number of people who have asked for financial information. I know personally that when I asked about where our money was going years back, I was told to go to Indian Affairs and they would give me a copy of the audit. When I went to Indian Affair

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, they haven't. For the most part, again, we don't have consistent community meetings where our budgets are presented and where the audits are presented. I need to go a little further than that. I think there is some concern even with the budgets and the way they are presented

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With regard to the AFN, most grassroots people look to the AFN as an organization that is there to assist us. I guess we expect our leaders and our chiefs to encourage and work toward laws that promote transparency and accountability. That's why they're elected. We encourage them

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it would be both the government and the community working together to address those issues. People in the community know what the problems are. Again, it's the supports that we don't have, in terms of expertise, finances, that sort of thing, I guess in collaboration wit

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Okay. What I'm asking the standing committee for is an opportunity to have representatives of your government come out and meet with the people to further discuss all of the things and the variables that we deal with to improve the lives of our people on reserve, so that we can

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. I first of all would like to say thank you to the Creator for allowing me the opportunity to be here and to speak with you as per your invitation. I guess I found it somewhat difficult at the beginning to try to answer ques