Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think the next step is that we will certainly continue to lobby the bureaucracy, but we also probably hope to get a meeting with Minister O'Regan to talk about our partnership and the fact that, hopefully, he will give his bureaucrats direction to recognize our agreement as a r

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it stems from the long-standing relationship between the City of Saskatoon and Whitecap, going back to the meeting between John Lake and Chief Whitecap and to Chief Whitecap picking a second location for the City of Saskatoon during the Riel resistance. Chief Whitecap was

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all. I don't advise other first nations. I think they have their own autonomy to make their decisions. The path we went down is a pathway that we chose as a community, through community consultation. We have a minimum of four community meetings every year to talk with

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  My community was told late last week that the CMHC budget, for Saskatchewan anyway, will be 20% to 30% less, so for the Saskatoon Tribal Council, which we're a part of, it's going to be a major reduction for housing. The program itself has to expand. For our community, they're

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This is the first time I've ever heard of the Canada learning bond, honestly.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's the same thing; I've never heard of it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think we've been very successful as far as getting our students into post-secondary education is concerned. Also, I think that Indigenous Services Canada has really focused a lot in the past on teachers and social workers. We've been saying that we have to get beyond that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, it's been a positive experience for our students from our community. Like I said, there's also a cultural room there, and even a lot of new Canadians are going in and smudging as well with our students. It's very open.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Our elders are there every day, and for the students coming from Whitecap it makes them feel at home. As you walk up, the Whitecap flag is flying outside the school as well. On the architectural side of things, a lot of the elements—even the landscaping, with trees and things tha

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think, when you're talking about the economy, you basically have to look at the Indian Act. The Indian Act was never created for us to be part of the economy.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It was created to keep us out of sight and out of mind. They put us on these small little tracts of land called reservations. I was raised by my grandparents. My grandfather, as a young man, if he wanted to leave Whitecap to get supplies, had to get a pass. If he wanted to sell h

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  All of the capacity is there already, yet all the regional education authorities that Indigenous Services Canada is promoting are struggling to find capacity. How are we going to accredit our teachers when we don't want to use the provincial accreditation and all that? We're no

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I believe it's not as good as what Manitoba is getting, so thanks for that. It's about $14,000 to $16,000 per student.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I have yet to see the housing crisis resolved. It's unresolved, I would say. Even in my community, we have a waiting list. I have about 100 of my members who are waiting for houses. We also have a lot of employees, and even our employees want to reside in our community. We have

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think there is definitely a concern on the part of the provincial government and the Saskatoon Public Schools division. There is a concern about what this agreement is going to mean to the amount of resources that the Saskatoon Public Schools division receives from the province