Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on June 2nd, 2016

[Christopher Sheppard]

Every person I've worked with or have done an intervention with is very different. One person might be okay with experiencing some of those pieces. Then you have someone who has a hard time finding a job, suffers from addiction, can't find a place to live, doesn't have a whole lot of support, or you could have someone who has one catastrophic event or thing happen to them. In my experience, I've never been able to characterize them except for saying that every person has dealt with those situations differently in their ability to manage them.

One thing which I think is really difficult for non-indigenous Canadians to understand is when a non-indigenous Canadian dies by suicide, it is a huge shock in the entire community; it is a big thing, and when a young indigenous person or an indigenous person dies by suicide, it is another one. This has always been a challenge for me because it has happened so often.

In my region of the country, we had one of the highest rates of suicide in the world when I was a teenager. I was in one community where there were three suicides in one week. When you work with a young woman who has lost 20 members of her family to suicide, it isn't the same outcry as the general population when it comes to people dying by suicide.

People ask, how did you normalize it, why did you normalize it? You don't really have another option if you want to keep your mental capacity intact. It's really challenging to get through those situations. For non-indigenous Canadians, I find it's difficult because you haven't had to live through it over and over again. It's not like we fly in mental health counsellors and they're gone five days later; or we're able to get someone into the hospital because we've had a string of suicides in the city, but then there's nothing, no other support; or you're told that you're aboriginal and someone else should be giving you a psychiatrist instead of coming to the main help centre.

There's this huge separation between non-indigenous Canadians understanding the reality of suicide for indigenous people. Why is this such a mystery? You look at all the underlying points and all the barriers that people face every day, and it's not that difficult to start to piece together why you would have trouble thinking of continuing to live. You have nowhere to sleep. You have no food. No one seems to care about helping you get a job. That's your life. That's what you live every day.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

I'm sorry, Arnold, we're out of time.

The next question is from Gary Anandasangaree, please.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Sheppard, for coming back to us again.

I have a couple of questions. First, with respect to your experience in the urban setting, what would you say the top three things that we as government, and through you as organizations, need to do in order to address this issue in a meaningful way?

[Christopher Sheppard]

I would say the first big one is supporting organizations at a realistic level to offer the services that they need to offer. Some of the federal government departments do really amazing work in some of these areas. We have friendship centres that have amazing relationships with Health Canada, and other areas where they are able to get a portion of the funds or project money to do this kind of work. It's just that the resources are limited.

Second, I would think infrastructure money is amazing. Infrastructure money that makes a huge difference to people in urban settings is even more amazing, for instance, housing. We know that housing on reserve and in the north is a huge issue. You can imagine how challenging it is for an indigenous person in an urban setting to have housing. We have a homeless shelter because it is a necessity. We have aboriginal people who have nowhere to live, and unless you make a certain amount of money, you may never find a suitable place to live. Infrastructure money may be about housing, transitional housing, something. We do emergency housing. We would love to do transitional housing to help people. We do all this other work, but housing is a huge thing for us.

Third would be providing real support for urban aboriginal young people. Historically, we were able to deliver another federal program that no longer exists, that was focused around urban indigenous young people, and some of the indicators are mind blowing. If you google “cultural connections for aboriginal youth” or “UMAYC”, urban multipurpose aboriginal youth centres, you'll see some of the amazing work that has been done across the country in friendship centres and out of friendship centres, because it was delivered across the country through various organizations and even through departments themselves. That was an amazingly successful program that created a lot of amazing young indigenous people across the country who attended a friendship centre program that supported them to get to a place where they can be successful. I'm one of the people who came out of that. It no longer exists. This is the thing: when you have successful programs that no longer exist, it's disappointing.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

You mentioned some of the work that our departments do, and you said there were some good programs. What would be a couple that are directly linked to suicides that are regional and could be expanded to other parts of the country?

[Christopher Sheppard]

There is some work being done through some of the residential school money, through IRSSA, and through some of the other funds. One of the biggest successes I've seen besides the Indian residential school money and being able to support those people in the broader community, has been transportation. Some of the work is with Health Canada's first nations and Inuit health branch. Enabling transportation to programs is huge. Transportation is a huge barrier in pretty much every community, so when people are able to get to things, it makes a huge difference.

It will be important to look across the different areas that do urban aboriginal funding and see that there are some amazing success stories with some amazing people working in them. Many friendship centres have relationships with Indigenous Affairs regionally that are amazing. But sometimes it doesn't feel like that flows all the way up. Sometimes it feels like you understand what it is in the community, you understand what it is regionally, but then when it gets to the national piece, it doesn't exist, and those relationships aren't there.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

It's the consistency, then.

I'll go to education. What types of supports do you offer toward educational attainment? It's a very complex issue but....

[Christopher Sheppard]

It depends upon to which friendship centre you go. If you go to the friendship centre in Halifax, they do upgrading, GEDs, acquiring a high school certificate, working toward training. Other friendship centres have alternative schools. It really depends on the relationship they have provincially around education on what you're able to do.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

We're out of time, Gary. Thanks.

The next question comes from Cathy McLeod, please.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you.

First of all, I know that we're here to discuss the issue of suicide prevention and that horrific thing that you have to deal with all the time, but I have to go back because I'm actually quite stunned. The one thing I've heard agreement on at this table is that we are all amazed at what friendship centres do. I have a friendship centre in my riding. The building is not very great, but it has people with passion who do an absolutely phenomenal job, and I will admit, on a shoestring budget.

The funding issue does disturb me, though. The minister was here on May 5, and she was asked that question in terms of what's happening with the funding, and at that time, she said there is funding for “friendship centres, which is secure. Over the past two years they have been administering the whole of the [UAS]...”. Now, I think you are only doing $43 million out of $50 million of it, but it's not the whole. She says the money's booked. All they have to do is sign the contribution agreement to get the money to flow.

I remember in the friendship centre where I was many years ago they were handing out pink slips in April because they didn't know if the money was flowing or not. They didn't have the money. What I'm hearing is the money is not there. First of all, perhaps you could clarify, is it because you haven't signed the contribution agreement? The minister said that on May 5. We're a couple of months into the fiscal year. Are pink slips happening in some of your friendship centres?

[Christopher Sheppard]

I'll take a portion, and you take a portion.

[Yancy Craig]

I believe the minister is correct in that the authority for the department for the funding exists post-budget, and we've been in discussions with the public servants who manage the program, and they've requested us to reconfigure our contribution agreement. We had to produce a new work plan because of the way the authorities for the renewal of the funds as announced in the budget have come to fruition. We had to pull a lot of extra information together as part of that request.

As I said earlier, we made our submission yesterday. We understand that once we've met the lens through which it's being viewed at the bureaucratic level, then we'll move very quickly toward a funding agreement. Then we will indeed be able to flow the funds from the national office as we administer the $43-million portion.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

In the meantime, were you given emergency money? Were you given anything, or have friendship centres been laying off staff?

[Yancy Craig]

We understand some friendship centres in some areas either have or are at risk of losing staff.

Part of the challenge, I think, was a lot of the concern around the sunsetting of a large portion of the funds. It made everyone quite anxious for the budget announcement. Of course, that happened later, and the usual cycle then would have happened. Normally, towards the end of the calendar year, we'd be going through the applications and calls for proposal processes to maintain continuity of funding for the new fiscal year starting April 1. That, of course, has caused delays because of the wait for the budget announcement on the confirmation of funds.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

The minister at the time indicated that because friendship centres weren't the only organization providing services for urban aboriginals that you were responsible for the entire fund. How much has been cut back in terms of what is going to flow through your friendship centres, and is that going to have an impact on any of the programs such as some of the work you're doing around suicide prevention?

[Yancy Craig]

Our understanding is that we're going to receive the full $43 million, so it won't be a cutback in funds. The issue is the delay that we've been experiencing as we've been adjusting to the new requirements, but as I say, we're hopeful that will be resolved soon. And, yes, it is having an impact.

Chris can speak to the impact perhaps even more directly than I could.

[Christopher Sheppard]

A lot of friendship centres have not just operation programming or whatever, they also have a lot of other programs and services. A lot of the time this isn't the only delay in funding. A lot of friendship centres have other programs that are also delayed. It's really challenging to keep employees when you don't know when your money is coming.

A lot of friendship centres have historically kept staff on because of the anticipated funding, but when it gets to this point, you don't know.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Okay, thanks.

Ms. Lockhart.

[Alaina Lockhart, Liberal, Fundy Royal, NB]

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your presentation. It's been very helpful.

One of the things that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission suggested was that we recognize the value of aboriginal healing practices. I'm assuming that's challenging in an off-reserve situation. Could you give some sense of—

[Christopher Sheppard]

I don't find it challenging. This is the thing: A lot of Canadians, even in my own province, have this idea that indigenous people live on reserve, that that is where they all are. They don't think that I have access to an elder who's lived in St. John's for 40 years, who speaks Inuktitut, and is able to communicate traditionally. They don't realize that I have access to those people. Most friendship centres have elders. A lot of friendship centres are hubs of cultural revitalization for people who left their communities. A lot of friendship centres have language programming, cultural programming. Every program and service at most friendship centres, when they're developed from the ground up, look at whether the program is culturally appropriate. For example, most people think of a mental health team as a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist, yet ours consists of a clinical social worker, a psychologist, cultural support workers, and an elder.

I don't find it challenging, and I know a lot of friendship centres don't find it challenging, either. There are a lot of aboriginal people who live in the city, and there are a lot of aboriginal elders who live there, too. You can call and ask them to come in, because you might want to do a ceremony, for example. It isn't challenging. I think the challenging part sometimes is finding innovative ways to do it in the city, but it's totally possible. A lot of us are founders or elders. It's a common thought that it's challenging or difficult. We have third-generation young people who've never lived on a reserve or in an aboriginal community. A young person from Halifax looked at me and said, “Don't ask me where my community is, because my community is Halifax. That's where I'm from. I'm an indigenous person, but I live in Halifax”. I said, “Okay, duly noted”.

[Alaina Lockhart, Liberal, Fundy Royal, NB]

This is a small question but it could be fairly broad. Going through this review, is there one thing you would tell the federal government not to do?

[Christopher Sheppard]

Don't assume that something is going to work for everyone. One thing I like to tell people is that I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad I'm able to be here talking for the National Association of Friendship Centres, because the urban piece is really important. It is also important to understand the differences between communities. Different things are going to be required depending on where you live and depending on your cultural background. There are cultural practices and cultural beliefs for almost everything. For example, there are cultural beliefs around when your life ends.

There are all these different pieces. It's important not to think that you're going to come up with something that will work for every single indigenous person in this country. Some of the best resources at your disposal are the regional people in your departments who know the communities and have amazing relationships with them. It's great that I'm here and that I can speak about some friendship centre experiences, but you should remember that those will be different depending on where you are and what your cultural background is. There are communities where homelessness might not be one of the factors. You have to look at suicide as a combination of a whole bunch of complex issues. Friendship centres try to look at as many as they can. St. John's, for instance, doesn't do employment services. We don't have that program, so that's an area where it's a huge concern. Using as many regional resources as possible is really important.

[Alaina Lockhart, Liberal, Fundy Royal, NB]

Thank you.

As a fellow maritimer, I can appreciate that.

[Yancy Craig]

Flexibility is important. We all know that programs are designed by governments for specific purposes, but flexibility on serving in the community, the one delivering the service, is very important. Across the friendship centres, we have 60 years of experience in meeting needs directly and adapting our services, so allowing that flexibility is a fairly low risk proposition.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thanks for that.

Before we get to the three-minute question from Niki Ashton, I wanted to let members know that by the consent we had at the beginning of the meeting, once Ms. Ashton is done her three-minute question, we'll have a seven-minute question from Don Rusnak, a seven-minute question from David Yurdiga, and a seven-minute question from Niki Ashton, and then we'll end the session with the association.

Ms. Ashton, please.