Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The translation came in and out. I apologize. I might have to—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I missed the question. I apologize.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't have the article that you mentioned right in front of me. I was looking for it, and I recognize the reference that you made. I think part of the problem is not the fact that they're private companies. Whatever the tendering process is, the policy has to be very well don

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's one example of the James Bay Cree. They moved from a long-term lease to full home tenure. One of the reasons for that was that you can't stop the allure of peoples' lives. They meet significant others from other communities or they seek educational and economic opportunit

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I suppose they're connected in the sense that, in order for first nations to be able to access own-source revenues that they can use and leverage from the First Nations Fiscal Management Act, you have to open the door to economic development. So you have to unshackle first nation

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Definitely. I think that's a very good way for first nations to access funding for different projects at good interest rates. One thing that's important about the First Nations Fiscal Management Act is that you have to show that you have proper financial and governance controls b

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that any funding, and the commitment made, are good, as opposed to the previous budget. But I'll just reiterate what I'd said in my statement, that I really don't think the government is ever going to catch up. I think it's never going to be enough. I think the government

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think there's a lot that government can do. There are first nation organizations that look at these things. They can provide templates for best practice housing governance regimes that they can provide to first nation communities. Just as an example, we mentioned Fisher River

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Madam, I missed the first part. I figured out the translation at the last second. I apologize.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can't speak to the northern Métis; I'll let Mr. Bailey address that. I know you're talking about Métis communities across Canada. I'm associated with the Métis Nation of Ontario. It's mostly urbanized, so it's not really an issue. You have a lot of Métis who generally live i

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would say first of all that the land codes themselves, the First Nation Land Management Act, are a form of sectoral self-government. It just applies to land management. There's a whole range of ways that a first nation can leave the Indian Act. The most common that we see in

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First, I'll just stress that what I've been talking about is mainly first nations on and off reserves. That's mainly what I do. I'll let Mr. Bailey deal with any types of Métis issues. Regarding land codes, for Fisher River First Nation, like it is with a lot of first nations th

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good afternoon. My name is Joseph Quesnel. I'm a Métis research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Adequate housing, especially in remote and northern locations, is an intractable problem facing first nation communities. The high cost of housing in these loca