I'll do that.
The H1N1 virus is a world health threat that is affecting Manitoba first nations disproportionately in comparison to the general public. This is due to poverty, lack of access to home medical supplies, lack of access to health care, the lack of information about H1N1, overcrowded housing, and a lack of access to running water. Overcrowded living conditions are breeding grounds for the rapid spread of an airborne virus.
A second wave of the H1N1 virus is poised to devastate our communities. The Manitoba first nations have completed training on an incident management system to enable us to respond in a coordinated manner to the H1N1 threat and to act as nerve centres for each first nation. They will respond to local emergencies and will prepare for the fall flu season in respect of pandemic planning.
As an educational campaign, we printed and distributed H1N1 posters to 17,000 first nations homes and businesses in Manitoba. On June 24, 2009, under the direction of the AMC executive council, I requested that all Manitoba first nations declare a state of emergency on the H1N1 pandemic. This was done to ensure the safety of all first nations citizens during this upcoming crisis and to hold governments responsible and accountable for taking the necessary measures to fulfill their fiduciary responsibility towards first nations.
There is abundant reason to be concerned about the H1N1 virus threat in Manitoba, where 62% of the first nations population are under the age of 25. We know that the average age of confirmed H1N1 is from 12 to 17, that the average age of death is 22, and that 52% of those hospitalized were under the age of 19. We also know that pregnant women are the highest at risk and are four times more likely to be hospitalized.
In the first wave, we were ill prepared to deal with the impacts of the influenza. Our nursing stations reached surge capacity almost immediately. Thirty-seven first nations communities have health centres that do not provide any primary care. The nearest primary care is, on average, an hour's drive away.
In the last four months we have encountered challenges and obstacles while putting an intervention plan in place. On training, for instance, INAC and FNIHB were non-responsive to requests to train managers to set up the incident command centres until media reported that MKO had gone ahead with the training without any help from the federal government. We are continually stonewalled by tight-fisted financial decisions that ignore crown fiduciary responsibilities for health care. FNIHB, for example, delivered instructions to use health dollars for pandemic operations when they were already earmarked for other essential services.
We are discouraged by how quickly governments stepped up to prop up the hog industry from revenue losses because of the words “swine flu”, and then dragged their feet when we needed help. It takes extensive and necessary discussions and continual interventions at many different government levels to determine precisely who and what agency has the respective jurisdictional responsibility and, in some cases, the simple willingness to act in these important matters. As with all other jurisdictions in Canada and, for that matter, the world, we await the availability of a vaccine, but we are very concerned that the flu virus may well occur before the vaccine is widely available.
As a first line of defence, we have developed a medicine kit against H1N1, which the province and corporate partners are stepping up to pay for. We would like to think that the federal government would support such well-thought-out actions as opposed to raising both explicit and implicit criticisms and barriers. We have come to the conclusion that our best preparations may fall short of what is required, particularly because of our unique situation where many of our communities are remote and very poorly equipped.
We are absolutely amazed that the Government of Canada, even though it has a well-developed plan called “Annex B” for dealing with the unique situation as it relates to first nation communities, has not chosen to implement that plan. That particular lack of action is, in our view, totally unconscionable. My overarching concern in the matter of the H1N1 pandemic is that we are not ultimately addressing the very conditions that make first nations populations high risk.
As an economic factor, it is widely recognized that the maintenance of good health is more affordable over both the short and long term than dealing with chronic illness. Therefore, why is it that first nations continue to face the substandard community realities that have long been identified and well documented? Why are we not dealing with the physical conditions that simply continue to worsen, further increasing the risks of this particular pandemic, not to mention the already-present high risk factors of illnesses such as diabetes and obesity? What better opportunity is there to finally address the pervasive issue of living conditions on first nations communities than by addressing such a serious health issue?
It is entirely clear to me that the cost of dealing with these identified conditions of risk in a proactive manner would be an excellent investment in the present and future health of first nations. This investment would also address once and for all the treaty responsibilities of the Government of Canada with respect to the very unequal living conditions of first nations and ensure equality of access and resources over the long term.
Ekosani. Meegwetch. Masi-cho. Wopida. Thank you. Merci beaucoup.