I'm not sure where to start. So many pieces were covered. Clearly, as you parse it out, there are the issues or the challenges for many communities, aboriginal communities, remote communities, in terms of their capacity, in terms of issues of housing, sanitation, water, etc. These are long-standing challenges that ultimately are essential to good health and to the resilience of communities.
The other that I think I heard spoken to was how different communities have approached the issues and planning. As an aside, it was quite gratifying for me because I used to be the medical officer in Algoma, and Garden River was one of the reserves that I related to. And I was the chief medical officer in Saskatchewan when we actually set up the conditions with public health medical officers, nurses, and others so that the services on and off reserve were coordinated between the province and the federal government and with the band councils' support. So to actually see some of those things pay off, I think, is very gratifying.
But it does speak to the many challenges, ultimately, and the value of the sharing of experience and expertise across communities. I'll leave Shelagh Jane and Paul to speak to some of the things that they're looking at around that.
In terms of the advice, whether or not it's a structured position, we've often talked about that, but we've also been consulting with national aboriginal groups and others in terms of the most effective way to engage around public health. Representatives of AFN, ITK, and others are involved with us on an ongoing basis in terms of our planning, reviewing our plans, the development of plans, etc. So I think that's important. And whatever best ways we can do that, we're obviously interested.
And then, finally, it is about how we actually apply this, given the diverse country that we are, at the time of the pandemic. I remember a great many years ago working with municipalities, band councils, etc., around emergency planning, around pandemic planning, and it's obvious that in spite of all that work over these years, across the country communities are at very different stages of planning. We might have hoped that we would have another year or two, or three or four, to get those things in place, but obviously we don't. So right now it really is key to focus our attention around addressing those issues that we can in the short term, recognizing that there are many, as members have identified, long-term challenges to be addressed to ultimately get at this in the long term.
But in the short term, access to vaccine, access to antivirals, access to knowledge and information and the kinds of resources that communities can do, I think, is key. I very much appreciate the committee's comments, and certainly those of the witnesses today.
