Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2016

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

About two years ago when the government built a new health centre we were all excited, the whole community, and it was going to be a new thing, but they were still bringing in mental health workers, social workers, nurses. The minister at the time didn't say it, but in our presentations we were celebrating and saying that we were going to have cross-cultural training for all the new government employees. It was very exciting two years ago, but it never turned out that way. We're still waiting.

And yes, there are people like me, at the band office, and the elders who are still active who can do the cross-cultural teachings or workshops to orient, because a lot of our caregivers are still coming from Edmonton, Toronto, and so on.

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

So you're still finding that the people who are coming to your community to work are not employees of your community, they're employees of the government, and they're not having as good training as they need in terms of being able to work in the community. Is that accurate?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

Yes. A lot of it is to do with just being aware of a totally different culture, with what the people are like, and I guess there is always that disconnect when you have service providers who don't really know the culture, so that is still a challenge.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

The next question is from Jenny Kwan, please.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you, Chief, for your presentation.

I just want to go back to clarify a point. When you were talking about the new health clinic that was developed and then the health professionals and different people who were supposed to come, you said it never happened. Is it the case that the health professionals never came, or is it that they came, and the cross-cultural training never took place?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

Yes, they arrived in the community but the cross-cultural orientation and the training never happened, so we're still waiting.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I see, and the staff are still there at this juncture?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

Yes, they're good people but still....

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Okay. In terms of resources in your community, do you feel that you have sufficient resources by way of counsellors, for example, mental health support workers, wellness professionals, that kind of infrastructure? Do you feel that infrastructure is in place or do you feel that there are some areas where you could use additional resources?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

Especially in my community, and there are a lot of others in the same situation, sometimes it seems that we never get enough good caregivers, because there is such a big need. About 10 or 15 years ago, we had a group who were not well educated. They weren't highly educated, but they were all local women who responded to a tragedy, or a funeral, or a situation that happened in town. They were a group of women, about 10 or 15 of them. Two years ago, we also put together a proposal for that group of women. We said, “Let's give them some training”. We sent that proposal to Health Canada or somebody in Ottawa. We never got approval, but the need is still there. I still have a copy of that proposal.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

If you can send a copy of that proposal to the committee, that would be very helpful. Maybe you can take a look at it from the perspective of areas where they need to be updated. For example, additional gaps might not have been identified, or the service at this current time could utilize attention. That would be, I think, very useful for the committee to take a look at, as well. That would be what we would call soft infrastructure.

On the flip side of it, what about the infrastructure facilities? A lot of the witnesses who spoke to us, particularly from the youth, talked about the issue of connectivity. I think connectivity can have many meanings. Most certainly, I think the ones to which they were referring were the cultural aspect, the traditional aspect, and the historical aspect, but also the connectivity to family as a support network.

One youth, in particular, talked about how he's going through a process now of sobriety, how he's going to sweat lodges, and how it's helped cleanse him in that process. I'm wondering about that infrastructure, sweat lodges for youth, and particularly youth recreational centres or activities used in that regard. What's that infrastructure like in your community?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

In our community, we have a real need for a youth centre. Of course, as soon as you get a facility or a building, then it has to have staff and programming. I guess that's where we are challenged. Some other communities are a bit more fortunate. I can see it, but even when my own kids were growing up, and this would be about 25 years ago, we had a terrific hockey team. Jordin Tootoo came to live with us for a couple of years. My sons were playing with him. It was because some of us parents, mothers and dads, did fundraising. We went to Super Soccer. All the exciting stuff happened. Those things are just no more. It's a big void there right now in the community.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I have one last question about language.

You opened with your language, I think. People talk about the importance of language, as well. Do you have elders in your community who can pass on the language? If there were programming and supports in place for that to be supported and passed on to future generations, is that something that could be done?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

Yes. I guess we are fortunate that we still have a number of the elders who can do that. I am also reminded that even a person like myself had better start practising and learning to be an elder too, sooner rather than later.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Fair enough. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thanks very much.

The next question is from Don Rusnak.

[Don Rusnak, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Thank you for being here today, Chief.

I also want to acknowledge that we are welcomed here on Coast Salish land. I'm from Anishinaabe territory in Ontario, quite a distance away.

I was the executive director at Grand Council Treaty No. 3. In terms of the long-term issues with suicide, one of the things I've said over and again is that we're never going to be out of the cycle of dependency, the cycle of depression, or the cycle of low self-worth if we're always beggars in our own land.

I don't know what the situation is around your community. I was just looking at where it was on the map. I worked for a brief time in Yellowknife—actually north of Yellowknife—at a gold mine called Colomac, which became defunct a long time ago. I worked with some of your community members there, and with people from Rae-Edzo.

As I see it, one of the options for first nations is to have a real stake in the resource revenue sharing. In the western provinces, generally that would mean that the money the province would normally collect would go to the first nations. I've been struggling with this for years. When the resource runs out....

Where you are, I know there aren't many trees, but there's probably a mining industry. There's probably a huge mining industry right across the whole Northwest Territories, so looking at ways of doing it....

In my area of the country there is an 80-year turnaround for softwood trees, but it's a so-called renewable resource. If we can get real revenue sharing where we collect the resources for our community, then that's long-term, sustainable, predictable funding to allow us not to beg for money in our own land through contribution agreements. You must know what those are like. INAC bureaucrats or Health Canada bureaucrats dictate what we do in our communities, whereas we know—or should know—what to do best, because we're on the ground living it every day.

Is there any potential? Has your community looked at the option of getting into negotiations with the Government of the Northwest Territories or the Government of Canada regarding resource revenue sharing ?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

Yes.

For providence I guess, we're part of the Dehcho First Nations, and we've been at the negotiating table for well over 30 years. I hope that within the next year we will conclude. We keep saying that it's for the future, and some people are advising us that all the social problems and negative stuff are a matter of economics for first nations, whatever that definition of economics would be.

We have a very good idea in the negotiating package about royalties, and that has to be another key, it is hoped within the next year or so. But governments per se, as we understand them, are stingy, or they don't get it.

[Don Rusnak, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

That's just entirely the problem. We shouldn't have to go to government, because I hear my friend's party in the House often saying we need to spend more money or we need to put more money at this. But ultimately it's a department telling us where the money needs to go, and not our having our own money to do what we need off our land. And ultimately, I see that as a long-term solution, where a bureaucrat in Ottawa is not making a decision for the health needs of people in your community. And that's where I would like to see our governments go to attain self-sufficiency, because the way we've been doing it in the past.... Even with this new investment by our government into first nations health, first nations infrastructure, it's still an investment in a broken system. It's good because we need these things immediately, but it's almost addressing a crisis again. We need to look at the long term. How are we going to not make these mistakes? How are we going to make sure these communities are sustainable and our people can actually govern?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

I was told a couple of weeks ago that the unemployment rate in our community is 54%. And you mentioned self-esteem. Boy, if the band or a band company could create some jobs.... If you have a family and a father, and they could give him a job, holy man, you'd see that would make a big difference in anybody's life.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thanks.

We're out of time there, Don.

We're moving into five-minute questions which tend to move very quickly. The first question is from David Yurdiga, please.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Chief, for joining us here today. Your wisdom is appreciated. And all our passion is for the next generation, our children and our grandchildren. We see that with the economic climate on many first nations, they are struggling. I know that 54% unemployment in your region is devastating. It doesn't give any hope for the next generation.

If you had the ability to be responsible for developing your own resources, what types of resources do you have within your community that could be developed?

[Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge]

We have projects that we've been working on, logging; but our neighbouring communities are saying be careful because we're in the boreal area of Canada, and the boreal caribou has got to be considered.

Another idea that we have is gravel, because we're beginning to build roads to resources and all that stuff. Gravel is going to be something we can easily get into.

Our people are also talking about tourism, because people from Europe, or the Americans, out in a van, want to have an experience. The experts are still guys who are harvesters and they're in the community. Boy, if you could just make that connection and give them a little boost to get started, that would be magnificent.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

As I mentioned earlier, the youth are our future. What challenges do they face in obtaining a post-secondary education? Because education, as you mentioned earlier, is very important. Obviously they have to leave the community to do that.