Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 24th, 2009

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Okay, but there is a payment to that.

[Dr. Mark Dockstator]

That's correct.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

And you have some staff?

[Dr. Mark Dockstator]

Again, under our legislation, we can't really use the word “staff” until after our chief statistician is hired. That person is responsible for hiring staff. So we do have consultants and we do have four people working for us on various arrangements such as interchanges or secondments, for example, through Statistics Canada.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Are they paid by Statistics Canada or by your organization?

[Dr. Mark Dockstator]

Primarily now through Statistics Canada.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

So you have no expenditures? I'm just trying to find out.

[Dr. Mark Dockstator]

Basically, yes, that's correct.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

So the $4.3 million or $4.8 million in estimates would have been totally unspent?

[Dr. Mark Dockstator]

They would, as far as I know, be moved forward.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Would they lapse or would they be carried forward?

[Dr. Mark Dockstator]

That I don't know. They would lapse, I guess.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Could we find that out?

[A voice]

Yes.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Okay.

I have another couple of questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We're pretty well wrapped up there, Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Very quickly, can we get a copy of your corporate plan?

[Dr. Mark Dockstator]

Sure. That's not a problem at all.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you, Mr. Bélanger.

Mr. Albrecht, five minutes.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses. My apologies for arriving late.

I did get a number of the reports off the web earlier. I just want to focus on a couple of areas as they relate to health care, maybe following up a bit on Mr. Rickford's questions.

First of all, I notice that in the lung cancer rates among Inuit, you indicate here that they're the highest in the world, and you also indicate that, on a daily basis, more than three times as many Inuit smoke as other Canadians do. That really concerns me. Are there any prevention or educational programs in place? Secondly, there is the cost factor in this. One of the very obvious questions is this: how can this many Inuit people afford to be smoking and not affect the rest of their lifestyle in terms of adequate housing, food, and those kinds of things?

It may not be fair to ask you that question as it's out of your mandate, but could you just respond a bit in terms of what you found in your analysis?

[Cathy Connors]

You're absolutely right about what we found in the analysis. Inuit are smoking more than the non-aboriginal population. In terms of prevention and education programs, that's not really something we can speak to.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Okay.

I would have the same question, then, as it relates to dental care. You pointed out as well that many of them don't have access to dental care. It seems that the emphasis here, in terms of measuring, is on emergency treatment or dental treatment. Again, the question that begs to be asked is whether there are any prevention programs. Are there any hygienists or people trained in oral hygiene instruction and so on who could possibly fill some of this gap?

Are those treatment modalities measured at all, or is it simply a matter of measuring the number of dentists there or how many times they fly in for emergency treatment, and so on? That seems rather like an end result as opposed to trying to actually improve health. You mentioned that it affects overall health as well, and we certainly know from research that this is true.

I'm just wondering how we, as a committee, could be influential--again, I'm not putting blame on anyone here--in advancing the cause of those kinds of treatment modalities.

[Cathy Connors]

One thing to remember is that these surveys were person-based surveys. The types of things you're talking about would need a different type of survey for which we would actually survey dentists or the dental community in some way, shape, or form.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I think it's something we need to be looking at in the future.

Do I have any time left?