[Witness speaks in Blackfoot]
I am happy to be here today. I am Bonnie Healy from the First Nations Information Governance Centre. I am currently the chair of the centre. I am here with my co-executive Mindy Denny, and I will let her introduce herself when it comes time.
The FNIGC is a fairly young organization. We incorporated in 2010 but since before that we have been working as a committee and have been quite responsible for the development of the regional health survey and for ensuring that a data system is developed for first nations by first nations. We have a special mandate from the Assembly of First Nations chiefs. FNIGC envisions that every first nation will achieve data sovereignty in alignment with their distinct world view. We work in close collaboration with the 10 regions. We have a board of directors from each one. A lot of our work involves the development of capacity-building around research and the implementation of the ownership, control, access and possession of first nations information.
We are responsible for rolling out three national surveys: the First Nations Regional Health Survey; the First Nations Education and Employment Survey; and, a survey that would be of interest to this group for this study, the First Nations Labour and Employment Survey, which we're ready to deploy in the next few months.
AFNIGC, the Alberta centre, is the only regional centre in Canada that is a satellite incorporated entity and partner of this national centre. I am the executive director of the AFNIGC. A big part of the importance of gathering data is that communities do not have data available to them to make evidence-based decisions to set their priorities.
What we have done in our region is to really work on fixing the data sources, because the Indian registry doesn't have timely updates of deaths and births. Reporting inaccurate data is something we've done in collaboration and partnership with the province. Part of the management and governance of our own data and information is based on our free, prior and informed consent. We are the fastest growing demographic, but our numbers grow and so do our concerns about our socio-economic conditions, our traditions and our health. There is a growing disparity between indigenous peoples and the rest of Canada, through a variety of historical sources, including Canada's legislation and policies. When it comes to our treaty rights to self-determination, as data drives policy, we must assert our right to govern our data. The only thing that separates our people from anyone else is opportunity.
Through increased communications, collaboration and participation in data management, we must move forward on the fundamentals of OCAP so that we can continue to build partnerships and relationships and are able to act and have a sense of being involved in a true management process as nations in partnership. Driving policy and legislation means gaining capacity, resources and infrastructure while respecting the indigenous world views passed on to the generations, which are just as valid today.
A big part of it is making sure that we have the data available to first nations so that they can set their priorities, and measure and evaluate their successes. A lot of the funding they receive does not include evaluation dollars and components. We have worked with first nations to apply for research grant money so that they can evaluate how they are actually succeeding. One of the examples I can share is from the Blood Tribe in the opioid crisis. They have been in a declared crisis since 2014 and they have done a lot of harm-reduction work. The first year they had 34 deaths. They have worked collaboratively as a collective to really try to address this issue and have had great success. When they declared their second crisis last February, they had 78 overdoses and they had timely access to the overdoses that presented in the ED departments and only two deaths. Four years ago they would have had more deaths, if the harm-reduction work didn't happen. But they didn't have dollars available to do the evaluation to see exactly how they were doing with harm reduction and really addressing the issue. So, having data available to them has really helped in that regard.