Yes, back in 2015.
I remember I moved four motions at that meeting, one was on pharmacare. I moved a motion on studying antimicrobial resistance. I moved one on community health care. I moved one to undertake a study on the status of indigenous health and to report those findings to the House.
I would move that our next major study be one on indigenous health in Canada. I'll briefly explain my reasons.
I think our last meeting was instructive. We heard a little bit of evidence about the really disturbing state of oral health in our indigenous communities. We heard a little bit—I can't remember the statistics—but unsurprisingly, the state of oral health among our indigenous people in this country is significantly lower than the state of oral health for Canadians at large.
I've done a bit of research. Life expectancy for people living in first nations communities is currently five to seven years less than for other Canadians. Tuberculosis rates are 31 times the national average. Suicide rates are five to seven times the national average. That's just picking three representative health indicators—one on mental health, one on young people, one on tuberculosis, a very treatable and in fact even preventable illness—and of course life expectancy being the ultimate measure of health. I think it's a fair comment to make that it wouldn't surprise me if across the board, indigenous health lags behind the health of non-indigenous Canadians on every major measure.
The other reason I think this is really important is it's one of the core areas of health that is within federal jurisdiction. This is something we have direct responsibility for. The Prime Minister set the tone for this very early on stating that no relationship is more important to his government than that with indigenous people.
I think, colleagues, in terms of health as a subject in Canada, there is probably no issue more in need, more crying out for attention than that of the state of health of our indigenous peoples in this country.
Finally, I would say that this committee has done no travelling whatsoever. I think it would provide an opportunity for us to do some travel. We only have about 20 months before the next election, so we don't have a lot of time, but I think the opportunity to travel, particularly to some northern communities, some remote communities, would be very instructive. I've been on committee travel before. Some of it's a waste, but some of it is extremely moving and very informative.
If this committee went to a remote community to see what a health clinic or nurses station actually looks like—I've never been; I don't really know—I think it would be really be informative.
I'm going to move, for all those reasons—it's been on the docket for a long time, so it has the advantage, while not determinative, of having sat there for the last two years—that we move to undertake a study on the status of indigenous health and to report the findings to the House. I'm at my colleagues' pleasure in terms of when we start it, but I would suggest that be the next major study that we start in February or March.