I'm the member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River. I'm happy to acknowledge the traditional territory of Fort William First Nation. Chief Collins, I hope you're watching.
I think some of you may know that Thunder Bay has the largest urban indigenous community, proportionally speaking. My questions will go to the friendship centres.
We know that the expected lifespan of people from indigenous communities is significantly shorter than that of people from non-indigenous communities, and there are concerns about having the resources to deal with urban indigenous populations. One of the concerns of people in my riding, and of someone who worked with youth at risk in the indigenous community, is that because we are trying to use social distancing we are unable to bring together at-risk youth for counselling. This is a real concern. As he rightly pointed out, these are youth who probably have a far higher risk of dying because of suicide or violence than because of COVID-19, and now we're asking them to pay the price for protecting the elders in all of our communities.
What can we do to ensure that we continue to provide services for that kind of at-risk population? What can we do together? I know that one of the big things you're going to say is money. Our party realized that $15 million isn't enough and that it's just a start. Besides money, what can the friendship centres and the government do to address the risks to that vulnerable population?