Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and thank you.
A couple of my colleagues are commenting that if I get into my really rapid pace you'll probably want to find another channel on the translation dial in order to really get an understanding of what I'm saying.
I just want to welcome each of you and thank you for your words and your powerful case in defence of the work of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the testimony you gave that underscores how fundamental it is to many of our people in our communities, and certainly to the communities themselves.
I certainly want to welcome that young witness, who--it sounds like to me, anyway--is certainly objecting to the Conservative government's decision to cut the Aboriginal Healing Foundation as well. At least that's my translation.
I want to ask a couple of questions and I want to focus on the Inuit, in particular.
There are a lot of these are isolated communities. Of course, I'm from Labrador. We have Nunatsiavut, which means “our beautiful land”. The interesting comment you made is that for the last couple of years we had an Aboriginal Healing Foundation program in Nunatsiavut, but there have been no common experience payments because there's still ongoing litigation, there are ongoing negotiations and talks about whether they will actually be brought under the Indian residential schools settlement agreement. So we will have some healing that has taken place because the communities have been ready and picked up that part, their responsibility. And now you're saying if we do away with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and even if we move to the residential health support program, they won't be able to get it at all, so there will be an absolute gap there, because it's only applicable to those who will have common experience payments or who fall under the Indian residential schools settlement agreement. So that's one impact.
The other impact I hear you saying is that there are very few resources, if any, outside of what has been developed over the last number of years, in a lot of Inuit hamlets and communities in Nunavut, and the Nunavut legislature unanimously passed a resolution saying we should keep the Aboriginal Health Foundation.
So I just want you to give us some concrete examples of what happens in some of these Inuit communities. And what will happen if it's not there? Will a person just have to pick up a phone and call a 1-800 number, be redirected to somebody, in some other part of Canada who can't speak their language, doesn't know who they are? Then someone on the other line says “Go and see a counsellor”. If you're in Gjoa Haven or if you're Pangnirtung, that might be hard to come by.
So just give us a concrete example of what the differences might be with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation programs, and then if they're not there.