Evidence of meeting #14 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was programs.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
For example, we know that one way tuberculosis can be transmitted is through close contact with people. The same problem exists among the Inuit population.
9:05 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
Perhaps my colleague could tell you more about that.
Do you have information on tuberculous on and off reserve?
We are responsible for the population on reserve, so our statistics on tuberculosis relate to that population. The provinces are responsible for the problem of tuberculosis and other diseases among the population off reserve.
Perhaps Mr. Buell can tell you more about the situation.
Off reserve, in urban areas, factors such as unemployment and poverty came into play. Therefore, even if overcrowding housing is not as serious a problem, there are other health outcomes to consider.
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Perhaps Mr. Buell would care to add to that.
9:05 a.m.
Director, Communications and Research, National Aboriginal Health Organization
I would just back up what Ms. Langlois was saying. In cities you're still dealing with overcrowded housing situations and all the difficulties they're in. But we don't know what the rates of tuberculous are off reserve. I have not seen that statistic.
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
I'd now like to discuss the financing problems of various hospitals in the regions, for example, hospitals in northern Quebec, Abitibi and James Bay. In Val d'Or in particular, there was a delay at some point in receiving payments for hospital health care. Have these problems been resolved?
9:05 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
Hospitals are a provincial, not federal, responsibility. Right now, we are responsible for only two hospitals located in Manitoba. We work with the provinces to transfer responsibility for hospitals. Therefore, I cannot answer your question about what happened in the case of the hospitals in the regions you mentioned.
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
I understand, but, aside from transferring responsibility, do you also transfer funds?
9:05 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
In the case of the two hospitals in Manitoba, yes.
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
I'm talking about hospital under provincial jurisdiction.
9:05 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
In the case of those hospitals, funds for hospitals are transferred by the Department of Finance through the Canada Health Transfer. Health Canada does not administer these funds.
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Many departments are involved. I now understand why the provinces have difficulty sorting everything out.
I'll now turn the floor over to my colleague.
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
Marc Lemay Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
There is a higher incidence of diabetes, tuberculosis and HIV AIDS among Canada's aboriginal peoples. When it comes to addressing the problem of crystal meth addiction, diabetes and tuberculosis, are your programs truly geared to aboriginal peoples?
9:05 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
I can speak about drug treatment programs developed and administered by aboriginals. These programs have had some success, but other factors do come into play, such as housing, income, unemployment and poverty. In terms of health care services, we do everything we can to see to it that programs are managed by aboriginals.
9:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
I see. Thank you very much.
Now we'll go to Madam Crowder for five minutes.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for coming before the committee today.
I have a couple of things. Ms. Kovacevic referenced the need to sort out jurisdictional issues. In December 2007 the NDP had a motion before the House on Jordan's principle. The motion had all-party support and passed unanimously in the House. Could you update the committee on the work being done on implementing Jordan's principle?
9:10 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
Absolutely. We are working right now with the Province of Manitoba and the Province of British Columbia, the first two provinces to say to us that they wanted to adopt Jordan's principle.
The federal government has adopted Jordan's principle. We are working closely with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. I actually co-chair a director generals steering committee with my counterpart at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, and we are working to ensure that no child is left without services as the result of a jurisdictional dispute.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
I believe a recent case of meningitis on a reserve in Manitoba raised some concerns that perhaps there were jurisdictional issues at play. I think that's just one example of an area where there is some concern. It was certainly a concern in a reserve on northern Vancouver Island, where 40 to 60 children were apprehended recently because of housing conditions. There is this argument between the federal and provincial governments about who is responsible.
Many, many, many cases of children being at risk are still unfolding in Canada because governments can't sort out who is doing what for whom.
You talked about a steering committee. I wonder how quickly, though, we're going to see some results that really do put children first.
9:10 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
I think it's safe to say that at this point we're focusing our attention on multiple-disability children who have multiple service providers.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Of course you know that the intention was much broader than multiple--
9:10 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
Yes. I think our view is that we need to walk before we run, and we want to get our dispute resolution mechanism sorted out with straightforward cases in which everyone agrees that a multiple-disability child with multiple service providers should not be left without services because of a jurisdictional dispute. We are working through that in Manitoba. We've agreed to use case conferencing as the approach. We're working with the children at Norway House Cree Nation.
Once we have our dispute resolution mechanism sorted out, we're agreeing to look at the broader issues of children with disabilities. In a B.C. example, our tripartite agreement with the Government of British Columbia and the British Columbia First Nations Leadership Council is an important place to go in terms of looking at the broader issues, such as housing and child apprehension potential.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
My understanding is that there wasn't consultation with first nations before the case-conferencing approach was adopted in Manitoba.
9:10 a.m.
Director General, Community Programs Directorate, Department of Health
Well, we worked at the table, we four representatives, in the first nations community, and in fact there were discussions with the first nations band councillor about what we were doing. We were going through all the cases, and they were at the table.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Having them at the table and having discussions is much different from having consultations through which they actually have input into the decision-making and the outcome.