In most areas of the country we have a bilateral or trilateral approach. We include provincial partners, as well as first nations and Inuit partners. Our purpose is to ensure that our actions are as integrated as possible. For instance, we are making additional investments in mental health in Northern Ontario. We work in co-operation with the Government of Ontario because it has also announced additional investments. However, once communication has been established between the two governments, we work with the first nations so that issues are approached in a manner that respects their authority over the services.
Our co-operation models vary somewhat from one province to another. Earlier I mentioned the coroner's report on the situation on the North Shore in Quebec; this report was filed earlier this year, in January. The people in our regional offices are working with the provincial departments concerned and with the first nations. We have to determine how to respond to these agreements, and take steps.
One of the components of that recommendation is to adapt services. The response must be culturally safe, as you say in English. We are talking here about access to services. Services exist, but access or continuity is lacking. We have to ensure that the services offered to the community align with those offered in provincial institutions, so that those populations are also well served.
In each province we have bilateral and trilateral co-operation mechanisms in place. That is really very important, because it is impossible to offer comprehensive service if we do not work with the provinces. In Canada, the federal government funds additional services for first nations and Inuit peoples, but in practice the provincial and territorial authorities deliver health and social services. Consequently, we must work in close co-operation with them.
I think we have made a lot of progress over the past four or five years with regard to the transparency of our actions. Before intervening on health issues with first nations and Inuit peoples, we hold a lot of talks with our partners. It is far from perfect, but there is a high level of co-operation.
When there are unfortunate incidents in certain provinces, the first question I ask people is whether they communicated with our first nations partners and whether they were in contact with the community chief to determine whether there were needs to be met. The second question consists in verifying whether the province or territory is doing anything, and whether additional assistance is required. We have to try to align our services. When there is a lot of turbulence and chaos due to a crisis, we can quickly redress the situation because we have co-operation mechanisms in place to improve the situation. Not having coordination is pointless. In fact, I can say that this level of co-operation really works very well in most provinces.