Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the Standing Committee on Health. I want to thank the committee for your kind invitation to present to the government on the status of preparedness of Island Lake communities on the matter of an anticipated H1N1 pandemic for this coming fall season.
The population exceeds 10,000 residents, comprised of first nation, Métis, and non-aboriginal peoples. The communities are located approximately 600 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. The communities are remote, accessible by air transportation year-round, except for six to seven weeks within the winter road season during January and February, weather permitting.
All four communities have the limited community infrastructure in place ordinarily granted by society. Most of our homes lack water and sewer facilities. Hauling drinking water in containers is not an uncommon occurrence in our communities. But when you do not have the proper infrastructure, what is the alternative? The alternative for the lack of sewage facilities is to construct makeshift sewage disposal units in very close proximity to the actual living quarters. For the purposes of clarity, I am talking about outhouses.
Our people live in crowded conditions. It is not surprising to find two or three or four family units in one house. The quality of housing, coupled with the wear and tear of overcrowded housing units, has rendered housing conditions deplorable. The present housing backlog will quadruple every two years. Managing the present housing shortage is just abysmal.
The reality is that we are losing our battle, to the point where we cannot provide adequate and decent shelter for our people. Shelter needs for the first peoples are reaching beyond the crisis state. The housing crisis will be further accelerated as young people reach adulthood. With the high aboriginal youth population, the fact is that their time is upon us.
Honourable members of the standing committee, the living conditions of our people that I am describing to you are central to the question of preparedness and response to the potential H1N1 pandemic. The prevailing conditions that I have tried to describe are the actual existing conditions. It's in these conditions that we, the people, are expected to respond to and prepare for the H1N1 pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives throughout the world.
I beg your indulgence. Health care is the right accorded to every citizen in Canada. I believe it may be enshrined in the Constitution. The four communities do not have a primary health care centre. Our communities have nursing stations manned by committed nurse practitioners, who work endless hours to provide medical health care services. Our communities have doctor visits. Our communities do not have any form of residential doctor permanently to respond to the 10,000 residents in our community. The wait time to see a doctor is not an issue; our people are just lucky to see a doctor.
The alternative to lack of immediate access to a medical doctor is the continual medical evacuation of our patients. Thirty-five cases were confirmed as H1N1 this past spring. More than 20 people with the virus were taken by medevac to hospital in Winnipeg for treatment.
The cost of medical response to the last pandemic outbreak demonstrated that communities, governments, and other agencies were not prepared for such outbreaks. The cost for additional nurses and doctors and support resources, coupled with high transportation costs, resulted in extraordinary expenditures to respond to the H1N1 outbreak.
It would be wrong for me to state that we are adequately prepared to respond to the H1N1 virus outbreak for this coming fall. The four communities have instituted the Island Lake region pandemic working group to coordinate the regional planning and to secure resources for a pandemic response. Furthermore, each community has organized a local pandemic working group. Each community has designed their incident commanders, who have the responsibility of coordinating intercommunity responses. There is only so much each of these units can accomplish without the required resources to make plans and to execute plans.
During the last outbreak, the Wasagamack First Nation, my community, had to institute response measures in an effort to contain the outbreak. These measures included quarantining family homes and the community at large, limiting intercommunity travel, launching mass communications processes, educating people on H1N1, meeting with the nurse in charge and incident manager on a daily basis, executing pandemic team recommendations, treating people with traditional medicine, and preparedness.
The Island Lake region had 35 confirmed cases of H1N1 in its first outbreak, which is 28% of the confirmed cases in northern Manitoba. The communities are bracing themselves for a higher incidence. The absence of economic well-being and the prevailing social challenges of our community present a formidable undertaking that must be addressed, not merely to respond to a pending outbreak but to plan to develop a long-range response to the present conditions of our communities.
On behalf of Island Lake first nations, we recommend that governments respond with the following: acquiring an assortment of adequate antivirals; engaging and supplying medical staff and resources reflective of the population and some circumstances; supplying assorted and accessible preventive goods, such as antibacterial lotions, etc.; plans for field medical unit and operations; upgraded medical equipment at the nursing stations; and financial resources to respond to the standard acceptable measures for first nations communities' prevention and intervention.
After mentioning the recommendations to address the immediate pending pandemic outbreak, strategy planning is crucial to the ongoing well-being of our people. The H1N1 pandemic outbreak is not our first experience with epidemics. Our history tells us that in comparable tragedies suffered by our nation, we have survived such pandemics in spite of circumstances, intended or otherwise. Our people continue today. In spite of the present danger of H1N1, our people—