Evidence of meeting #2 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was nations.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
Maybe the Liberals would like to share their time with me.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
February 25th, 2020 / 12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
First, maybe this is an observation, and I don't know if you will have much of a response to this. A number that jumped out to me from your speaking notes is the $2.5 million for an evidence-based suicide prevention strategy.
To me, having worked as a doctor either in indigenous communities or communities like Thunder Bay, which have large indigenous populations, that doesn't seem like a lot of money. If you consider that there are a million indigenous people in Canada, that's $2.5 per person, yet so many communities and families have been devastated by suicide. Is that enough money? What else are you doing to try to address that major problem with suicide in indigenous communities?
12:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
That's a very good point that it's only $2.5 million. We have this $2.5 million because the FSIN, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations in Saskatchewan, asked for the development of a regional strategy and its implementation. The amount of $2.5 million doesn't fund, necessarily, the initiatives per se. At the moment we spend something like $425 million on mental health services a year. We also respond directly under Jordan's principle to mental health demands, as we also do in the context of an emergency or crisis.
What we want to do with those initiatives now is not just put more money on the table, but make sure that the money is more proactive and driven by prevention and culturally sensitive, adapted and community-driven initiatives. For example, sometimes when there's a crisis, what we hear from first nations is that a lot of people come forward when there's a crisis, but when the crisis seems to be disappearing, people just leave. How do you make sure that you prevent those crises? You're a doctor, so you know that it's more about work on prevention than in reaction to a situation.
There's already a national strategy on suicide prevention or mental health that was developed by first nations that is really well done. I would invite you to look at it. The question now is: How do we support the implementation of such initiatives?
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I am from Thunder Bay, a community—I think one of many like Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saskatoon—that's recently experienced a large influx of indigenous people from northern communities. A constant refrain that I hear in Thunder Bay is that we have this large community here, but we're not getting the funding to provide services for that community. I know there's Jordan's principle that says nobody should fall between the cracks, but it seems like that's just filling in the cracks and not really a plan.
What is being done to assist indigenous people coming to these kinds of communities to get the services they need to integrate, if they so chose, into the society?
12:30 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
Most of the funding in urban areas is through the friendship centres. We work with friendship centres. On the housing strategy, there are also possibilities in the future, working with provinces and their social housing allocations and making sure it benefits first nations, Inuit and Métis in urban areas.
It is a phenomenon that is increasing. It is a place where the jurisdictional challenge is probably the most significant one. What we see more and more now is locally driven initiatives trying to combine funding from different sources. That's something we're looking at.
If you look at the last budget, I think we received $70 million for urban infrastructure precisely to help organizations that try to support first nations, Inuit and Métis living in difficult situations.
Thunder Bay is a good example. Winnipeg is another one. There are places such as that in the country, for sure.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Lastly, let me express a bit of frustration.
Fort William First Nation wants to build a chronic-care home to put up 100 elderly people so they can stay in the community. In trying to find funding for this, they got money from the province. We're looking for federal money, but it doesn't fit into any category.
It doesn't fit into Indigenous and Northern Affairs. It doesn't fit into CMHC. It doesn't fit into Health. It's a frustrating exercise to try to find funding for something such as this, which seems to be good on so many different levels. It unburdens the health care system and it provides something for first nation community employment.
Anyhow, I don't know if you have any response. It's my frustration.
12:30 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
I fully understand your frustration.
Send me the projects. It is something we should talk about in the context of a 10-year infrastructure plan. First nations are raising it: The population is aging, and having the population age outside the community is not necessarily in their best interest. It is something that we need to look at.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Tremblay, I have a question for you about the funding provided to the FSIN in Saskatchewan. I had the privilege of being at that announcement. I joined your minister there, and I was pleased to do that.
Subsequently, I've had a number of conversations with first nation leaders in my riding. There are three first nations in my riding that are not part of the FSIN. What's our answer to those people in the sense of how they access some of this help?
They're facing the same crisis in their first nations as the ones that are part of the FSIN.
12:30 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
It's not the FSIN or those communities; it's both. We're multiplying the effort. We'll see what's going to come out of this process with FSIN.
They had significant support from communities in terms of going ahead with a regional approach. The activities remain at the local level.
I know communities are sometimes concerned about it. They know more than I do. They know that if you really want to address the situation, you need to be on the ground and you need to do it with the community.
The FSIN proposal is not one to develop everything from the centre and to decide. It's more a coordination of actions. I think we should give the process a chance and see what's going to emerge from that.
The fact that we are doing this work with FSIN doesn't stop us from working with communities in terms of having a mental health unit, for example, or groups helping those communities. It doesn't stop Jordan’s principle. It doesn't stop the money that was already flowing on mental health to continue to flow that way.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Can I give your phone number to the leaders of those first nations that are concerned that they're getting left out on this, or left on the side?
12:35 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
You can give them our address and our phone number. I'm sure they know my RDG. They have to express those concerns. It's their right to express those concerns.
Just engage in the process. We'll see what's going to come out.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Very definitely, the intent is not to have all those dollars funnelled through the provincial leadership, so to speak.
Thank you.
I have some history of being part of a provincial-level water agency. We hear lots of talk about limiting the long-term drinking water advisories. There is some question about a number of these being put back on short-term advisories after they've been lifted. Can you quantify that for me at all?
12:35 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
It's not the objective; that's for sure.
We have sometimes heard people say we're going with the short-term solution, because they would like to have a new system. We assess all the systems to make sure we have a sustainable approach. We're not eliminating the long-term advisories just for the sake of it and thinking that in two months from now they're going to come back. That's not the objective.
The solutions differ, depending on the situation. There are cases where, yes, you need to change the system. There are situations where the system can work at the moment, where we plan to change the system in maybe only four or five years from now. It's more in regard to capacity. It's more an issue of prioritization among the different solutions but among the different cases we have.
However, our goal is clear. Our goal is really to do it for the long term. That's why, over the last few budgets, the funding we received is more about the O and M, the operations and maintenance, of the existing systems and new systems that would be built.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
That was exactly my follow-up. We can make the capital investments, but what I found in my former life as a water utility board member is that it was the operational side that we were struggling with—getting qualified personnel and some of those kinds of things. I expect that might be some of the challenge, even though you invest the capital.
Is that a fair conclusion?
12:35 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
That has been the challenge for decades in the system. As you said, it's not different from provinces. It's not different from federal infrastructure sometimes.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Do you have a good plan to deal with those operational—
12:35 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
On water, as I mentioned, we got a significant amount of funding over the last few years that is more about O and M than just strictly capital.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Thank you.
If I have any time left, I'm going to pass it to Mr. Viersen.
