Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You raise an important point. In fact, we built that into the design of the Wen:de recommendations. If you look closely on how we allocated the funding for least disruptive measures, it is actually lowest in year one and them ramps up for about seven years. The reason for that is

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What we've done with the Wen:de report is, given the great diversity of first nations communities, not only in terms of cultural diversity, but also, as the honourable member Crowder has already pointed out, some are in remote rural and urban areas, we have suggested that communi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In one program that they did, they actually combined early childhood, an employment program, substance misuse, and a parenting program all as one particular program. That makes all kinds of sense, right? It addresses all those types of issues. What they found—and these were all h

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This specific study was targeted by the Department of Indian Affairs to be on reserve only, but we do have data through the Canadian incidence study that does a comparative analysis on and off reserve. What we find is that the removal rates are still very high off reserve. This g

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With housing, substance misuse, and poverty being key drivers for aboriginal children being overrepresented in child welfare, it really suggests that investments need to be made at two levels. One is investments in the core housing budgets of first nations communities. In The Ca

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With regard to Indian status, I think there has been a reluctance to move on that, because the question has been: if Canada lets go of its criteria for who's an Indian and who's not, will that mean there will be an erosion of aboriginal rights and title? Will that mean a lot of n

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That would be a better question to ask groups like the Assembly of First Nations. I know that there has been a study on what if you hold onto the status quo. So what if we don't change anything? I'm a status Indian. I have sufficient blood quantum to be status. That's the reality

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's correct in terms of the average province, and the more specific figure is really the $109 million shortfall. That's dated as of 2005, and it's fully supported by all economic evidence, as well as research evidence, for each one of the figures. That's contained in the Wen:d

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. We were commissioned by a joint committee known as the national policy review advisory committee, which is co-chaired by the Department of Indian and Affairs and the Assembly of First Nations. Participating as well on that committee are representative

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, we weren't able to get into those things in this study. I think the savings would be astronomical if we really looked at it in those terms, especially when we know that aboriginal young people are the fastest-growing segment of the population. If we were to collectively as

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No. There is a lot of cohesiveness in that report. One of the things that's important to understand though is that the Province of British Columbia, in that particular instance, said they're going to make an investment in aboriginal children in the child welfare system, which i

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Exactly.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, it's an important point. There is a remoteness adjustment in the current formula, but we're recommending that be changed somewhat. The part that is population-sensitive is the operations portion, which funds prevention services. So if you happen to be in a small community,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Just to clarify, the number at the beginning was from four sample provinces, comparing what proportion of children were in child welfare care by cultural group. So what we were able to find out is that 0.67% of non-aboriginal children in those four sample provinces were in child

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The $109 million would apply to children on reserve only. Unfortunately, we do not have good data in all regions on the level of funding that is necessary and on how it should be distributed for child welfare services off reserve at this particular point in time. In terms of th