Evidence of meeting #120 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was home.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Band Councillor, Health, Okanagan Indian Band
That's all right.
The health authority is British Columbia First Nations Health Authority. All funds that flow through the federal government flow through the health authority and out to the nations. Currently, instead of Health Canada handling funding for health in British Columbia, First Nations Health Authority does that on behalf of Canada.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Okay, so that's not just for your band. That's for all first nations in British Columbia.
Conservative
Conservative
Band Councillor, Health, Okanagan Indian Band
Yes, we believe it is. There are growing pains. We're only in the fifth year.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
All right.
I'll move to the folks in Alberta. Do you have anything like your own health authority?
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Are you working towards it, or are you going it alone as your own band, so to speak?
Director, Health, Aakom Kiyii Health Services
We're going along as our own band. I don't want to speak on behalf of my councillors, but there was some talk about a confederacy initiative.
Chair, Health, Aakom Kiyii Health Services
Right now, we've transitioned from a Treaty 7 management into the Blackfoot Confederacy. That still needs to be talked about a little more.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Would the Blackfoot Confederacy be cross-border?
Chair, Health, Aakom Kiyii Health Services
Yes. The Blackfoot Confederacy is comprised of the four bands that I talked about, but when we negotiate on the Canadian side, it's mostly Piikani, Kainai, and Siksika. They make up the Canadian side.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
One of the previous witnesses we had here talked about first nations. He said that they are caught between the bark and the wood of a tree, referring to the provincial and federal jurisdictional issues around health care. We see that in B.C. they have their own health authority. How have you dealt with that at this point?
Chair, Health, Aakom Kiyii Health Services
Right now, it's set up so that we have an operational agreement, or a contribution agreement, with the federal government. We have to comply with those regulations. The health director administrates that on its behalf.
As far as AHS, Alberta Health Services is concerned, right now it's just conversation-level. There are still those jurisdictional issues we have, with them coming onto the reserve. I can give you an example. When they did their study on how many people they would actually fund in a master, just in conversation they suggested they would only fund 10 beds based on the surrounding information. The one thing they didn't have access to was our nation membership on the reserve.
That's why we actually lobbied for funds to get the feasibility study that targeted our nation membership who lived on the reserve. I believe appendix 9 of our feasibility study outlines how many people are in need of those services and what their multimorbidity issues are.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
One of the other things we have heard from previous witnesses is around cultural sensitivities, particularly around food. Have you had any interaction with how that's run, or how that's dealt with in your community?
Director, Health, Aakom Kiyii Health Services
Back in the day, we had our traditional diets. Having been taken away from that is why we see all these health detriments that we're dealing with now. It's on account of getting away from our traditional diets. We have conversations with individuals who we are going to be bringing into the continuing elders care, to have everyone up to speed on that option of having our traditional diet in place so that health conditions could improve for our people. We're not only starting there, but also starting with our youth and helping them see that this is traditionally what we ate, and then mix it with exercise.
It's a learning process, but it's just getting the individuals who we are going to be bringing into the elders care centre up to speed on where we are as a people traditionally.
Chair, Health, Aakom Kiyii Health Services
I will add to that. As you look at it right now, a lot of the time our elders have a limited amount of funds. The socio-economic conditions are limited for them, so they end up buying a lot of refined sugars, a lot of refined flours and things of that nature. Those are definitely not part of our diet, as you know. Processed meats and things of that nature versus wild game....
When we do have ceremonies, we offer a lot of wild game that the hunting community offers to our elders. We definitely need to look at getting back to a diet that's consistent with a holistic approach for first nations people, versus what we eat today. The dollars for a dietitian are pretty short in the contribution agreement, as you know.
Conservative
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Do you have a plan?
One of the things we always hear about is the lack of personnel for long-term care facilities. I'm sure you're working on building capacity within your own community. Do you have a plan? Probably all you have time for is yes or no.
Director, Health, Aakom Kiyii Health Services
Yes, we have, but look at our population—45,000 members. Yes, we do.
