Well, I'm glad you asked that question, because it was a failure on my part to mention it in my earlier presentation. So the Creator works in great ways.
In my mind, and in the minds of many of the people I work for, we already have the framework upon which to start invoking this change of attitude and approaches. That's captured in this modern treaty we have with Canada and with the territorial government.
We know that we've already undergone a 10-year review, and right now we're having difficulty in that review process in how we're implementing.... The real wisdom is to look at how we are implementing this arrangement, how we are implementing this partnership. The partnership is framed, as I mentioned before, not just on giving first nations this, that, or anything. It was more than that. It was more about collaborative governance. It's more about collaboration and cooperation and the delivery of public programs and services for the social well-being of indigenous people, but also by extension, if you read that treaty, of other Yukoners and Canadians.
When we look at some of the fundamental problems associated with this, we have, for example, a single-window approach that Canada takes to looking at this picture through the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The obligation by Canada on the treaty is with corporate Canada. It's not with Indian Affairs by itself. Indian Affairs doesn't represent all the various aspects of corporate Canada and all the things corporate Canada does. There's Human Resource Development Canada, there's Environment Canada, there's DFO. I don't have to tell you that; you know this already.
We know that historically in our country, in the development of our governance, we very much have stovepiped our institutions and our ministries. What we wanted to bring to bear in this treaty was, let's find a way to move away from that to where we have greater collaboration. Let's work on making sure these local first nations communities have some basic infrastructure, some basic community support, and public programs and services that they can deliver to help start addressing social ills that were caused by colonial practices that happened in the past.
When we look at these reviews, we're looking at some of the federal policy barriers, and there are a number of them. There are too many for me to share with you now, but I'll share them in the written presentation. These are identified barriers, and even acknowledged by many federal representatives as barriers, yet no one is prepared to come forward with a solution to overcome these barriers that prevent Yukon communities from accessing some really good programming that could help them start working on some of the initiatives required to achieve wellness.
I know when I was in Russia in 2000--I was there for two weeks as a guest--I looked at the social condition. We know that Russia came off 90 years of Communism. I was there as a guest and I got to see a lot of things. One of the things I paid close attention to was the social condition of the Russian population. What was interesting to me was the correlation between the indicators of the Russian population and the indigenous population in this country: rampant alcohol and drug abuse, high rates of crime, high rates of suicide, incarceration, etc. If they had taken the word “Russian” out of it and just put “Yukon First Nations” or “Canadian Indians”, I wouldn't have really known the difference. The indicators were the same.
It's obvious that when we as a country adopted the Indian Act and the application and the principles outlined in there in terms of a real social system, it really did a disservice to the Indian people, although that may not have been the original intent of it, but that was the result. It created an air of dependency and it created a system where people were systematically handled from cradle to grave.
This happened, of course, through the life of the Indian Act. We finally shed ourselves of the Indian Act in 1993, as I said, but we're still wrestling with how we now move forward. How do we move forward now? We have these treaties that are in place that provide for the partnerships, that provide for the fiscal arrangements required.
The problem we always have--and I'll just say it--is that DFO as a ministry is not fully cognizant of its responsibilities under this treaty. Environment Canada is not fully aware of what their responsibilities are. Human Resources Canada is not fully cognizant of their responsibilities. It wasn't just Indian Affairs. So corporate Canada in Ottawa has to find a better way to implement these modern treaties. When I look at what the experiment here is--and that's what it's called by some--we have a shot as Canadians at really doing something that's meaningful and purposeful in terms of helping correct some of our history and adjusting the social dynamics to bring about greater equilibrium between indigenous people and other Canadians.
If we can start making inroads in that light, I think other parts of the country would look at that and say, hey, there are some useful tools that maybe we can consider. We recognize that in other parts of this country there are challenges for the local indigenous populations. We need to find innovations. Right here we have the opportunity to do that.
I would really recommend strongly that Canada get on with implementing these treaties, and I would certainly highly recommend to you as a standing committee that if you have the opportunity to look at our treaties, look at what they say. There's a lot there. There's a lot of good stuff there that most Canadians aren't aware of, and when they do become aware of them, particularly parliamentarians.... I used to be in politics and I used to salivate at the mouth when I saw something good. I wanted to do that. I wanted to be a part of that. That would be my recommendation for what we need to do.