Human Resources committee  Thank you for the last word. This is of high importance for us. We have a mental health team here that tries to look after a lot of those issues. We have a [Inaudible--Editor] group here that we also work with, where we can focus on those with any issues. We try to get on them,

Human Resources committee  That's a really good question. Our matriarchs and patriarchs here in Sts'ailes are long outliving their sea island homes—their CMHC homes—that were built in the sixties and seventies. It's just not working. With the system now with ISC—Indian Affairs—we need to revisit the reno m

Human Resources committee  Right now we know of a lot of our people being in Chilliwack and Abbotsford, and a lot of our people live as far away as California or England. They're just everywhere. Wherever a job is created, a lot of them go there. There's no opportunity here; then they'll go elsewhere.

Human Resources committee  It's impacted them quite a bit. We have quite a few who are homeless right now in Chilliwack and Abbotsford. Some of them sought my help—your help—with COVID funds. That helped them out a little bit, but still, Chilliwack doesn't have a place for our people to be housed. The chan

Human Resources committee  I believe transportation is a high priority. We're trying to get a health centre here. We just do not find enough people to work for that. For our people to work off reserve, it's pretty challenging to get to Agassiz, Mission, Abbotsford or Chilliwack. The bus, the public transit

Human Resources committee  Yes, it does. A lot of them can't afford Wi-Fi or even a telephone. They're stuck on social assistance or whatever it may be with those barriers to transportation, and they're trying to get out. You can tell when it's SA day or when they need to go to the food bank. They're all o

Human Resources committee  I think it will create more opportunity for our people to come home if we're able to do more micro homes. Like I said, the majority of our people live off reserve, and those are only the band members. We have 300 community members who live here also; we didn't utilize those numbe

Human Resources committee  I fully support not utilizing Indian Affairs. As I said before, they take the majority of our funds and by the time our funds get to us, for me to build a new house, what I get from them is very little: $20,000. If I was to go to a nearby city, I would probably need $200,000. The

Human Resources committee  I believe so. When we try to do things, communication takes time. Maybe there's changeover or maybe there are elections coming up and everybody has to go like this for a little while till the election is over. Then we get lost in the system. We try to communicate with different m

Human Resources committee  Holy, man, you just hit it right on the button. That's exactly the way it goes with that three or four-pronged funding. The main funding is from the federal government and it goes to the province in Victoria and then it goes to the municipalities. Then Indian Affairs comes here a

Human Resources committee  I think it's an awesome suggestion. When I give out a portfolio, if it's housing, you're in charge of all funds, all infrastructure and so on. If we did that with the federal government and the MP of housing, if he was elected, if he was appointed to be the housing infrastructure

Human Resources committee  I think ISC is a little behind. They have to look after every community in the province of B.C., and we are one of the largest communities and they just can't keep up with our needs. It's almost like they don't need to be in existence. Why? Because a lot of our funds that come fr

Human Resources committee  Our housing worker, our housing director, probably puts in many hours over and above the time they get paid. Why? Because we can't put it in the budget. We can't pay them overtime because it's not in the budget. The Indian agent came here and said, “You only have this much money.

Human Resources committee  I believe so. We're in a 10-year grant funding program with the federal government through the AFN. I think we're ready to do that. We're educated enough to do that. We know how to count to 10. We know how to read English. We're getting pretty good. I think we're ready for that.

Human Resources committee  With the 10-year grant funding program, we have to prove to the government that we can develop a financial law, that we can come up with the policy and procedures and be accountable to our people as well as the AFN and the federal government. We've proven ourselves already that w