The issue of aboriginal youth and aboriginal people generally committing suicide is rampant across the country. Numerous studies have been done on the lack of self-government in many of these communities and its impact on people committing suicide. When varying degrees and notions of self-government increase, suicides decrease. This exists across the country in every jurisdiction.
I think the suicide epidemic speaks to hopelessness. Half of all aboriginal people don't graduate from high school, half of our people are under the age of 25, and half of our people live in urban areas. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, Canada has a growing underclass of people who are racialized, being aboriginal, who live in the most impoverished areas of our communities, and who see little hope. They see little hope because budget measures don't directly target them. They see little hope because jurisdictional battles between the province and the federal government over who has responsibility prevent meaningful action from taking place in many cases.
Our program and others like it provide hope and a place for these people to come. We provide programs that turn things around, and we partner with the very types of programs you're talking about that in the most drastic circumstances prevent suicides directly. Our appeal is based on one program, but the larger principle at play is the need for all jurisdictions to support meaningful interventions to really break the gridlock of poverty that exists. Ultimately, things like suicide, gangs, violence against women in our communities, our teens prostituting themselves on the streets, and murdered and missing aboriginal women are all related to the same types of issues. Interventions like this in one of those programs can have an impact.