Speaking to the issue of overrepresentation—whether it be in the child welfare system, the criminal justice system, and so on and so forth—we sometimes see society address the surface issues. We know for sure that when it comes to addiction, the addiction itself is only a surface issue.
My friend and colleague next to me talked to the social determinants on health. In my remarks, I spoke to the issue of needing to have effective funding and policing. From an overall systems perspective, we know for sure there are deeper issues, and the cannabis issues and the criminalization over the last several decades have only spoken to the fact that there are deeper issues.
My point is that there will need to be an examination of what is at the core of issues of addiction in the community. We can send good money after bad on this issue, but if we're not addressing the core issues in our first nations communities, we'll always be putting money where it's not going to be best used.